Ellie The Marauder
by Sirius-love1981
Summary: What if Peter was never a marauder? What if the 4th Marauder was a sassy blonde by the name of Ellie Greengrass? [Sirius x OC] [Marauders Era] [AU]
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I stood behind the locked door in a dark and empty room, breathing heavily, and straining to hear just outside in the abandoned hallway.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are.." a voice taunted.

I could hear footsteps coming closer. My heart began to beat violently in my chest. I pushed myself into the darkest corner I could find as quietly as I possible when I heard the footsteps stop just outside the door.

I heard a voice mumble some words I couldn't make out, and then wooden door creaked open. I could see a dark figure pad their way through the empty room searching for any sign of life.

I held my breath when the footsteps came closer...

"Ah ha! Found you!" Said the voice in a triumphant tone.

"Ugh! How on earth did you find me here!!" I whined, "you know it's against the rules to use the map!"

"You know I don't care about the bloody _rules_ , but anyway Prongs has it, remember?" he says cooly. I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest in disgruntlement and mutter an 'oh yeah'. "Oh c'mon! Let's go find the others!" Said the raven haired boy with bright grey eyes as he reached out his hand to help me up. Once I was successfully up off the ground, we walk together through the empty halls to find our other sneaky friends.

"You have the cloak don't you.." I said. It was more of a statement than a question. I knew he had to have followed me. My hiding spot was way too brilliant for him to find me that easily. I could see the corners of his mouth twitch, but he didn't reply. "Oh come on Pads, just admit it! You already found me!" I complained. "I want to use it to prank the others." I say in a lower voice with a smirk and a mischievous twinkle in my eyes.

His looked to me, his mouth turning into a wide smirk. "I like the way you think Snugs," he said as he pulled the silvery cloak out of his pocket and draped it over the both of us.

We walked along the corridors to one of the most frequently used hiding spots, a hidden room behind a painting of a group of wizards at a birthday party. Once we were close enough to the painting, we could hear muffled voices bickering. We slowly, and silently slipped into the room, unnoticed by the two quarreling persons inside.

"Potter. You are absolutely insufferable. Why can't you just leave me alone for one night!"

"Oh stop it Evans! You know you love the attention! Besides I was just trying to help!"

Even in the dimly lit room, I could see the red headed girl's face begin to blush. "By stalking me!?"

Their entertaining bickering was cut short by a soft "aahchoo" from the idiot beside me. I looked up and sent the idiot a glare as he smiled back sheepishly. Typical.

"What was that?" Asked the red head, as she instinctively clutched the arm of the messy haired boy next to her.

James looked down at his arm and smirked. "Oi! Sirius! You can come out now!"

Lily instantly let go of his arm and blushed once again.

Sirius slipped the cloak off of us and wadded it back into his pocket.

"Ellie!" Squealed the red head as she bounded towards me to engulf me in a large embrace.

I sputtered to get her red hair out of my mouth before replying. "You act like you never see me lils!" I chuckled. "We sleep five feet away from each other!"

She let go and then swatted me playfully. "You planned this didn't you!" She said gesturing between herself and the messy haired boy.

Yes. Yes I absolutely did.

We, (me, my fellow Marauders, Lily, Mary, Alice, and Frank) were planning our semi-annual-middle-of-term game of Hide and Seek, when I came up with the most brilliant of plans. A plan made in the name of love!

You see, because we are sneaking about in the castle in the dead of night, we have to take certain precautions. The Marauders are allowed to use the Marauders map or invisibility cloak in emergency situations only, but are to keep these items a secret from non-marauder players... minus Lily, who is too nosy for her own good and somehow finds out about everything. You also are confined to the designated wings and floors determined at the beginning of the game. We love a good mystery, but we still want to find everyone.

Game ends at 3am. If you haven't been found by then, you win and you are supposed to head back to the common room. Winner gets bragging rights and maybe some free butterbeer or something.

Now, let's back up to the whole brilliant plan I had. It is a well known fact that Lily Evans and James Potter are destined to be together. The only one who doesn't know is Lily. So, I suggested that James take the map and check to see where Lils was during the game. It's not stalking... technically.

"Err... I may have had a part in this... yes... but it was James' idea!" I lied defensively. She thwacked me once again. Man that girl could be a great beater if she ever got over that aversion to flying of hers.

Once we had James and the map, it didn't take long to find us to spilt up and find the rest of the group. We all made our way back to the common room sometime around 2am.

I threw myself onto the couch by the fire dramatically soon followed by Sirius.

"You know what I could really go for right now?" He asks as I hum in acknowledgment. "Some hot chocolate."

"Mmmm that actually sounds really good." I say with my eyes closed as I make myself more comfortable in the squishy couch.

"Let's go to the kitchens!" He says, jostling the couch as he starts to get up.

"Can't. Move. Too. Tired." I say with my eyes closed.

"Ohhh come on Ellie!!!" He says as he tried to pull the arm I was using to snuggle next to a pillow with.

"Stahp..." I grumble pulling the pillow tighter to my chest.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. You pick."

"Do either require me to walk?" I mumble.

"No." I can practically hear him smirking.

"Fine, the easy way." I say, knowing he's going to force me into going regardless.

"Alrighty, hop on!" He says leaning down for me to climb on to his back. I reluctantly move to wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist, still clutching my squishy pillow. "You're gonna have to leave that here, Snugs."

I reluctantly throw the pillow onto the couch and rest my head on his shoulder. "Well what are you waiting for? Giddy up!"

He laughed lightly and walked over to a sleepy James and Remus in the loveseat on the other side of the common room. "We're going to the kitchens for hot chocolate, want anything?"

"Nah, we're going to bed now anyways. But here, take the map, I saw Filch stalking around near the dungeons."

"Thanks prongsy, g'night Moony!" He said waving to a semi-conscious Remus.

He draped the invisibility cloak over us once more before heading out of the portrait hole and padding now the stairs to the kitchens.

"You still awake Ellie?" He whispered.

"Mhmmmmph" I hummed. I could feel him chuckling silently. We came to a stop when we reached the painting that hid the entrance to the kitchen. Sirius slipped off the cloak and tried to get me to climb down. I refused and clung on to him tighter.

"Someone's clingy." He teased.

"Shut It Black."

He tickled the pear and stepped into the kitchen and were met by a couple of house elves.

"Oh! Master Black! Lady Greengrass!" squeaked the House elf excitedly.

"Hey Tipsy! Do you think you could get us a couple of Hot Chocolates?" Asked Sirius.

"Oh yes! Tipsy will gets them right away master Black!" She said before scurrying off.

I finally let go of my iron grip of Sirius to sit at a wooden table a little ways away.

Tipsy brought over our hot chocolate and I took a sip relishing it's delightfulness. "Mmm mmm, this was a good idea." I say with a smile on my lips and Sirius chuckles, once again, amused by my sleepiness.

Once we finished our drinks, I hopped back on to Sirius's back and we made our way back through the castle to Gryffindor tower.

The common room was completely empty when we returned and I was dreading having to go back up the stairs to the girls dorms. Sirius let me off by the stairs to the girls dorm, but instead of climbing up as intended, I just curled up on the steps.

"Ellie, you can't sleep here." Sirius laughed.

"Why not?"

He ignored my question and asked, "are you really going to stay there all night?"

" _Duh..._ "

"Well then you leave me with no other choice." He said as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

"Hey!" I complained.

He carried me up the to the boys dorm and finally set me down on his bed. I crawled under the cozy covers happily as he grabbed a spare pillow and blanket and curled up onto the floor next to me. "Goodnight Elizabeth." He said

"Goodnight Sirius."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The next morning I was awakened quite rudely by someone repeatedly hitting me with a pillow... actually there were several someone's.

"Stopppp it Lily!" I mumbled, trying to hide under my own pillow. I could hear sniggering that sounded oddly Un-Lily-like, but brushed away this observation.

"WAKEY WAKEY ELLIE!" Boomed an obnoxious voice from my left.

"TIME FOR BREAKFAST SNUGS!" Shouted a voice to my right.

Man lily must have a cold or something her voice is pretty low, she almost sounds like James. Strange. But then again they are meant to be, so it makes sense...

Finally fed up with my stubbornness the voice to the left ripped off the covers and proceeded to throw me over his shoulder. Yes. _His_ shoulder.

The only person who has a habit of picking up against my will is Sirius Black, aka Padfoot, Pads, Paddy, snuffles, and Idiot.

"Padfoot! What are you doing in the girls dorm! We've discussed this!" I yelled while futility beating my little fists against his back.

"Take a look around, love." He chuckles.

Oh. I'm in the boys dorm? Wait... yes... it's all coming back to me. Stupid stairs of death.

"Oh."

He dropped me off by the stupid steps again so I could run up to quickly get ready.

I got ready for class and sprinted back down the stairs in 10 minutes flat, with my tie hanging untied around my neck, my shirt half untucked from my skirt. I left my golden hair down in loose messy waves—knowing I would probably French braid it back later—and my face clean and make up free, just the way I like it.

I made it down to the common room with a huff and immediate found my boys, AKA my fellow Marauders, waiting for me. There the three of them stood. First, was James Fleamont Potter, the lanky, messy haired one with hazel eyes behind his rectangular glasses, and a perpetual grin on his face. He is also known as Prongs or the one with the obnoxiously gigantic crush on Lily Evans.

Second, was Remus John Lupin, the even lankier one, with Carmel colored eyes, light brown hair with flecks of grey, and lots of scars all over his body adding to his very mysterious bad boy vibe... I'm kidding of course. Anyone who knows Remus knows that he is the furthest thing from a bad boy. He is a actually a very good boy, a prefect even. He loves to read and takes his classes much more seriously than the rest of us. It's a running joke that he is going to be a professor one day. A few years back we even changed the name on his trunk to "Professor R. J. Lupin". He acted upset at first, but has yet to change it back. No one is perfect however, and Remus is no exception. He has a habit of folding his socks and turning into a werewolf once a month. Remus is also known as Moony (because of the previously mentioned werewolf thing).

And last, but certainly not least, was my bestest and most idiotic friend Sirius Orion Black III. He is tall dark and stupid handsome, which only further inflates his already dangerously large ego. He has messy long dark hair that exudes a sort of casual elegance and stunning grey eyes. As I mentioned earlier, he also is known as Padfoot (and/or Idiot).

And then there's me. Elizabeth Ann Greengrass. Also known as Ellie, El, or Snugs.

Now, the weird nicknames probably deserve an explanation. Well long-story short, towards the end of the 4th year, James, Sirius, and I figured out how to transform into Animagi to help Remus with his Furry little Problem. James, or Prongs, turns into a stag, Sirius, or Padfoot, turns into a shaggy black dog, and I, Snugs (or snuggles), turn into a very large (despite being rather petite in my human form), very fluffy, and very snuggly cat.

I grinned at my boys and they grinned back before we marched off to breakfast.

We made it to the great hall and I set down my stuff by the boys before going to say hello to Lily down the table.

Lily Evans was a feisty red head with emerald green eyes who happened to be in denial of her love for James Potter. She was very kind to everyone besides James, and sometimes Sirius. She was also frighteningly brilliant. She somehow knew all about the map, the cloak, the furry little problem, _and_ the furry little solution.

I said good morning and gave her back the Defense Against The Dark Arts notes I'd borrowed last week after I missed class because of the full moon.

I was walking back to the boys when I was approached by a very good looking young man with blonde hair by the name of Noah Bletchley.

Noah was a well known Ravenclaw in our year (5th). He was brilliant, charming, and quidditch captain for the Ravenclaw team.

"Hello Elizabeth," he said smoothly.

"Uh hey Noah," I greeted trying to hide how awkward I felt.

"You're pretty good at Transfiguration right?"

"Sure am!" I replied.

"Well, I've been having some trouble with it lately and I was wondering... would you mind helping me out sometime?" He asked.

"Oh! yeah, sure! Um I'm free on Wednesday afternoon, would that work? We could meet in the library at around 3?" I suggested.

"yeah that sounds perfect! See you Wednesday! Thanks again!" He said running off to the Ravenclaw table.

I walked back to where the boys were and flopped into the seat next to Sirius, stuffing my face with bacon.

I looked up to grab some toast and noticed all three boys faces. They looked pissed.

"Er- sorry I ate all the bacon..." I mumbled with my mouth full. They just continued to stare at me. I was starting to gather that they were not upset about me inhaling all the bacon within arms reach. "Uh.. what's up with you guys?"

"Why were you talking to Bletchley?" Remus asked casually.

"He wanted me to tutor him in Transfiguration." I said with a shrug.

" _Tutor him_?" Said Sirius grumpily.

" _Yes_?" I replied mockingly in the same tone.

"You said no though, _right_?" Said James.

"Uh- I said yes actually, we're meeting up on Wednesday to study in the library." I said. Apparently this was not the answer they were hoping for.

"WHAT?!" Exclaimed James and Sirius. Remus silently shook his head with a pained look in his eyes.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"You know that Noah Bletchley gets all Os in Transfiguration, right? He doesn't need help. He only said that to hang out with you." Said Remus.

"N-no.. that can't be right, he-he said he was having trouble in it.." I countered pathetically.

"The only ones better than him in Transfiguration are you and I, Snugs." Said Sirius annoyed.

"Ughhhhhhggg" I grumbled slamming my head on the table. I was surprised to find that the impact was much softer than expected do to Sirius placing his hand out where I would have hit my forehead on the table.

I felt stupid for falling for the sneaky Ravenclaw's ploy, but also flattered that the handsome boy wanted to hang out with me. Actually, the more I thought about it, the more excited I was becoming... He really was a cutie and he played quidditch too...

"Hang on. Why are you all upset that he might want to hang out with me?" I asked suspiciously.

"Because he's a git." Sirius said earning a nod of agreement from the other two.

"He is not!" I said defensively. Actually, he might be for all I know, but I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of thinking I agreed.

"Yes, he is." Said James with a sigh. "He, has a habit of doing this. He tricks girls into hanging out with him and then.." he trailed off.

"And then what?" I questioned exasperatedly. The boys shared a look but didn't answer.

"How about I go with you? If he really wants help with Transfiguration, he should be happy to have the two best in the class." Sirius suggested with a smirk.

"And if not?" I asked.

"Well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He said with a shrug.

"Fine." I agreed knowing he would show up regardless. Stupid clingy mutt.

We made our way to our first class of the day, Herbology. A fascinating subject for some, but not so much for me. We were currently studying Chinese Chomping Cabbages, a particularly viscous breed of foliage.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed as the perturbed Cabbage nipped me. I muttered some curses under my breath earning a chuckle from James who was, unfortunately for him, my partner.

"Here let me try." He said as he fed the hangry cabbage some carrots.

"Show off.." I grumbled.

The next class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now _there's_ a subject I can actually get excited about. We were currently working on nonverbal spells, something the boys and I had mastered last year. It was a skill that came in especially handy when we were pulling off pranks.

We were partnered up to duel using only nonverbal spells and I was paired with Sirius. We grinned evilly at each other.

This was going to be fun.

First he tried casting a disarming spell which I countered with a shield. I fired back at him with a leg locker curse, that he simply side-stepped with a smirk. Next, he aimed and succeeded in hitting me with a tickling jinx that I quickly countered. It took a couple of tries, but eventually I hit him with a jinx that gave him dog ears the color of his hair. He was horrified. It was terrific. I lost my concentration from laughing so hard and he jinxed me to start coughing up fur balls. What a git. I couldn't manage to counter the jinx and ended up losing the duel, but thankfully the professor put an end to the fur balls.

Our next class before lunch was Transfiguration... with none other than the lovely Mr. Noah Bletchley.

I sat down in my usual spot next to Sirius, and behind Remus and James, waiting for class to start when Noah sauntered up to me.

"Thanks again Elizabeth for agreeing to help me. I'm really looking forward to it." He purred. He really was very charming, and his eyes were such a lovely shade of blue... they reminded me so much of those kaleidoscope things muggles had. His hair looked so soft, I just wanted to reach out and...

I heard someone beside me cough loudly, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Oh um, no problem!" I said cheerfully. I felt Sirius nudge me in the ribs. "Ow... Oh! By the way, I invited Sirius to come too. He's almost as good as I am." I said casting a smirk to the raven haired boy next to me.

Noah's eyes narrowed as he looked at Sirius. "I hope that's okay.." I said innocently.

"It's fine," he said with a dazzling smile, flashing a look at Sirius. "I'll see you ... two.. on Wednesday then."

"Awkward.." I heard Remus whisper.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It was officially Wednesday. The day I, and the tag along mutt, would tutor the beautiful Noah Bletchley.

I snuggled closer to the warmth radiating next to me. I was so comfortable, I didn't even question where the warmth was coming from. I guess my sleepy brain assumed it was Alice. She usually hopped into my bed when thunderstorms came around, but I didn't remember it raining. Strange. I pushed the thoughts aside and snuggled even closer to the cozy warmth and fell back asleep as peacefully as ever.

I finally awoke to sniggering. I heard a click and saw a bright light through my eyelids. I peaked open an eye and realized what was so damn interesting.

I quickly tried to shove the sleeping boy next to me away, but he only tightened the grip of the arm firmly placed around my waist. "Uggghhhaaa... Not againnnn." I groaned.

Our audience was cackling in amusement at this point and had the camera out again. The camera clicked right as Sirius nuzzled into the crook of my neck and I flipped off James and Remus.

What a lovely beginning to the day.

This was unfortunately not an unprecedented event. In fact it was about the fourth or fifth time it's happened. Usually I make the dog sleep on the floor when I crash in the boy's dorms. However, on nights like last night when we both accidentally fall asleep, we always end up snuggling. That's actually how I earned the bloody awful nickname of mine.

Still in the clutches of the sleeping Sirius, I thought quickly and transformed into my kitty cat form. I had foolishly hoped that this would help me wriggle my way out, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. He cuddle closer the fluffy cat version of me and started absentmindedly petting my head. It was actually really nice, and could tell I was about to start purring so I quickly transformed back into human Ellie. Sirius began playing with my hair.

The other two pulled out the camera again and I just gave a sigh of utter defeat.

I eventually wriggled away from my sleeping captors iron grip and bounded past the girlishly giggling James and Remus. I ran up the stairs to the girls dorm and slammed the door a bit too hard.

"Merlin! Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning!" Exclaimed Lily as she took in my disgruntled state. "Or maybe the wrong bed?" She guessed.

I muttered a few oaths under my breath as I grumpily gathered my uniform and made my way toward the bathroom.

"Oh no. Did it happen again?" Asked Alice.

"Yes." I huffed.

Alice and Lily were laughing hysterically as I shuffled into the shower. Some friends they are...

Alice Fortescue, along with Lily, was one of my best girl friends. She had a heart shaped face, short brown hair, and sweet brown eyes that made you made you feel safe enough to tell her all your secrets. But don't let it fool you. She was fierce. She was planning to go on to be an auror with her boyfriend Frank. Frank was a tall boy with short curly brown hair, and a deep love for Herbology and Quiddich. He was in our year, and even shared a dorm with the other Marauders, but he generally stayed out of our schemes and hung out with the other Quidditch team members.

Once showered, I charmed my hair dry (a groovy trick Lily taught me 3rd year), and began to try to tame my golden waves. I was unsuccessful. I was ace at pranks, but absolute rubbish when it came to primping.

"LILLLLYYYYY! I NEEEED YOUUU!" I groaned. Lily was one of the only people who could make my hair look good. The other being Remus, oddly enough.

"Coming!" She said a bit too happily. She leaned against the door frame of the bathroom and took in my pitiful lions mane.

"Help." I say pitifully pointing to my head.

She giggled and pulled up a couple of stools from the row of vanities against the wall. I sat as she started to work her hair magic, literally. She pulled out the bottle of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion (which we received in bulk courtesy of its inventor, James's Dad, Mr. Potter) and somehow de-frizzed my golden tresses to tumble down in sleek natural waves that framed my face. She was quite the Witch.

"There! All done!" She said as she moved a stray bit of hair from my face.

"Erm... Lils, could you.." I gestured to my face and she giggled. I was even more hopeless at makeup than I was at hair. With hair, at least I could French braid, a talent that came in quite handy amongst my fellow female Quidditch players.

"Of course, but I have to ask.. why do you need to get so dolled up on a Wednesday morning?" She asked while dragging me over to her vanity where her stash of make-up was strewn across.

"Um- do I need a reason?" I ask unconvincingly. Lily gave me a scary look that demanded I tell the truth. I felt bad for her future children.

I sighed. "I have that tutoring session with Bletchley this afternoon..." I said as she squealed. "Contain your enthusiasm woman!"

"Sorry," She said grinning.

Lily always did such a good job when she did my make-up. She made it look so natural that you could hardly tell I had any on. I often had her help me with my hair when I was looking particularly rough. However, I only let her do my makeup for family parties and such. Come to think of it, I think this may have been the first time I had worn make up at school.

I looked at the mirror and stared in awe of the masterpiece that was my face.

My usually invisible long blonde eyelashes were now visible and made my blue eyes pop even more than usual. My usually pale skin had some added color thanks to the blush and bronzer. I wasn't wearing as much make up as Marlene McKinnon usually did, but it was enough to make me look like a much prettier version of myself.

"Do you like it?" Lily asked with a knowing smile.

"It's great!" I exclaimed giving my red headed friend a bone crushing hug. Once I was fully dressed for the day, I slung my book bag over my shoulder and sauntered confidently down the stairs smiling to myself.

I heard a wolf whistle as I made it to the common room.

"Someone cleans up nicely!" Said James.

"This is all Lily's doing," I responded with a smirk.

"Ah, Lily-Flower did all this!" He said gesturing to all of me. I laughed and nodded.

"So is there any reason in particular that you got all dressed up for a Wednesday?" Remus asked with a knowing look.

"Maybe.." I said coyly looking around for Sirius. "Where's Paddy?" I asked. The boys pointed toward the stairs where Sirius was walking down, focused on trying to tie his tie. He glanced up, made eye contact with me, and just stood there with a blank look on his stupid handsome face.

He continued to stand there rather stupidly, until Milo McGonagall, a 6th year chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, bumped into him.

"Oh hey! Look at you El! Do you have a hot date?" Milo asked.

"Maybe.." I replied coyly once again.

"Y-you look... good, Snugs." Sirius said finally as he made his way over to where James, Remus, and I were standing. He scratched the back of his neck and ruffled his hair (a habit he picked up from James), "Er- sorry about last night." He said with a sheepish smile.

I laughed and waved it off, "it's fine, now let's get to breakfast I'm starving!"

As we made our way down to the Great Hall, my mind was happily focused on the plate of bacon I would soon be eating. I glanced up to warn Sirius that he should probably grab some before I ate it all, when I saw him looking quite disgruntled.

"What's with you?" I said with a half-hearted smile as I bumped shoulders with him.

"Oh, nothing."

"You're not as good a liar as you think you are." I said trying to give my best Lily truth telling glare.

It didn't work. He just shrugged and kept walking.

Once in the Great Hall I practically skipped to our usual spot at the Gryffindor table. I was in the process of piling the bacon onto my plate when the gorgeous Noah Bletchley waltzed over.

"Good Morning Noah!" I greeted.

"Morning Elizabeth! Did you do something different with your hair?" He asked as he reached out to touch one of my tresses.

I blushed slightly. "Oh, well I had Lily work her magic this morning."

"Any reason in particular?" He asked curiously.

"Not really. The only alternative was to go to class with a lion's mane. I have quite a bit of Gryffindor pride, but not that much." I said chuckling softly.

Noah was about to respond with what was sure to be a compliment by the look in his eyes, but was rudely interrupted.

"Yeah it was a right mess this morning! You should have seen it!" Laughed James. I sent him a playful scowl. "Actually! Wait I can show you!" He said happily while pulling something out of his bag.

'Oh no. He wouldn't.' I thought.

He did.

James proceeded to pull out a stack magical Polaroid photos of me and Sirius snuggled up this morning, my hair a wild mess. There was one with me laying on his chest, legs intertwined, another with him nuzzling into my neck while I flipped off the camera, and the lastly one of him with him absentmindedly petting a rather large cat that James quickly shoved back into his bag.

"I- I didn't realize you and Black were..." said Noah whose regard for me had become considerably colder in the span of a few moments.

I scowled at the James, Remus, and Sirius who were now laughing. "We're not." I said through my teeth.

"Oh don't be like that Snugs!" Sirius said feigning sadness while lopping an arm over my shoulders and playing with my hair. In hindsight, I really should have shrugged his arm away, but I was too busy glaring at him. Stupid mutt.

This was all it took for my once promising day to go up in flames.

Noah cleared his throat and I whipped my head to face him. "Uh- um, I really just came by to let you know I'm going to be busy this afternoon so I won't be able meet up with you anymore."

"But-" I started.

"Sorry." He added before walking hastily out of the Hall.

"You. Jerk. You. Did. That. On. Purpose." I said thwacking Sirius with each word. "You ruined everything!"

"I ruined nothing. He was a git to begin with." He said happily.

"Ughhh!" I said getting up in a huff. I took a couple of steps towards the door in an attempt to exit dramatically before turning back and grabbing a handful of bacon and glaring at my traitorous friends and heading back out of the hall.

We were in Transfiguration and I was forced to sit beside the mutt who had ruined my day. At least my hair still looked good.

I had done a very good job of ignoring him the so far and was currently focusing intently on actually copying the notes McGonagall had written on the board (instead of doodling and getting them from Moony later).

I began to hear a faint "psst" from the seat beside me. I had made it this long without breaking, and I was determined to make it until the end of the day.

"Pssstt... Snugs" he whispered. "Psst.. snugs... Snugs... Snuuuggs... Snuggles... Snuggle bug.. Snugalicuous. Snugy. Snu-"

"What?!" I whisper shouted whipping my head around to the face nuisance. I silently cursed myself for giving in.

He grinned and then gave me his best puppy dog eyes, trying very hard not to smile. "I'm sorry."

"You should be." I said shortly, whipping my head, my hair hitting him in the face.

"How does your hair always smell like roses?" He asked.

"Magic."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

It had been two weeks since the whole 'Noah Bletchley drama'. I hadn't spoken to him since he bailed on me, not that I was complaining. He really was a git. However, I would soon be faceing off against him on the quidditch pitch.

"WELCOME TO WHAT IS SURE TO BE AN EXCELLENT MATCH!! GRYFFINDOR VERSES RAVENCLAW!!" Boomed Hufflepuff, Brittany Daniels, from the announcers box.

"Time to introduce the Gryffindors! They have a stellar team this year! Sirius Black as Keeper— James Potter, Milo McGonagall, and Frank Longbottom as Chasers, and Beaters Lacy McGraw as captain and Samuel Jordan— oh he sure is a handsome one that boy.. OI, I'M FREE THIS WEEKEND JORDAN!!"

"Daniels!" Scolded Professor McGonagall. I grinned when Sam Jordan blew a kiss toward the announcers box. Ah, young love...

"Sorry Professor!— and

Finally, Elizabeth Greengrass as Seeker sporting her trademark French braids!

LOOKIN GOOD GREENGRASS! TEACH ME YOUR WAYS! "

'Ooo I like this girl.' I thought

"DANIELS!"

"— And here come the Ravenclaws! Captain, Chaser, AND COMPLETE AND UTTER GIT—"

"DANIELS! I'm warning you!"

"—Noah Bletchley! "

The commentary rang on as we took our places on pitch.

"THE QUAFFLE IS RELEASED AND THE GAME BEGINS!"

I watched as Noah tried to score against Sirius... not wise. Sirius caught the ball and threw it back hitting Noah square in the face, almost knocking him off his broom. I tried feebly to contain my laughter, earning a grin from Padfoot and a scowl from Noah.

I sat perched high above the action for a long while looking for the glimmer of gold. I occasionally would chase after nothing in particular just to confuse the other seeker, Gabriella Herring. She didn't seem to appreciate it very much. We've never been on very good terms. Merlin's eyebrow, you charm someone's cat pink _once_ and suddenly you're undesirable number one...

Suddenly I saw a flash of gold near the Gryffindor goal post. I raced toward the opposite end of the pitch waiting for Gabriella to follow. She did. You know, for a Ravenclaw, she's really not very bright... much too gullible. _This is how you end up with pink cats missy!_

Once I was sure she was following me, I spun so fast that gullible Gabby didn't even have time to react before flying headfirst into the stands. I raced back, praying that the little bugger was still there.

It was.

I looped to avoid a bludger, weaved my way through the blue and scarlet clad chasers, reached out my hand and felt as my palm grasped around the pesky little golden snitch. I looked up to where Sirius was guarding the goal posts, smiling wide showing the gleaming snitch in my hand. I expected him to be excited, but the look on his face was pure terror.

"ELLIE WATCH OUT!" He screamed. I turned around to see a bludger headed straight for my head. I didn't have time to react before it made impact.

The last two things I remember seeing before the world went dark was the terrified look on Sirius's face, and chaser Tommy Selwyn holding a beaters bat.

Ouch.

I had the worst headache of my entire life. My eyes were closed, but I could hear voices, and could tell I was in a somewhat comfortable bed, though not as comfortable as Sirius's...

"I swear prongs, I'm going kill Tommy. But first I'm going to torture him. I'm going to throw him in a cage with my wicked mother, a blast-ended skrewt, and a vat of..." said a very passionate Sirius just before being shushed.

"Shhhh!!!" I think she's waking up." I heard Moony say.

"Aw Moony I wanted to hear the rest of the plan.." I whined with my eyes half-open. My voice was croaky as if I'd been asleep a while.

I took in my surroundings. Hospital wing. Again. Should have known. I came here so often, Poppy should really get me a bed with my name of it.. and a more comfortable mattress.

Suddenly I was squashed by the weight of three teenage boys trying to group hug me while I laid in my bed.

"Ouch.." I muttered. It was all it took for them all the fly off of me.

"Snugs are you okay?! Oh of course your not! You're here! Is there anything you need? Another pillow? Soup? I can get Tipsy to bring some up from the kitchens! Does your head hurt? I can get poppy! Oh we are so going to get that Tommy Selwyn git." Rambled James.

"Wait, what happened?" I asked. The events leading up to my current head ache were a bit fuzzy. The boys did that annoying thing where they look at each other knowingly.

"Er- Well we won the game, because of you. You were absolutely brilliant!" Said James. I shot him a look to get to the point.

Sirius spoke next. "Well, as soon you caught the snitch, Tommy Selwyn, the chaser, grabbed one of the beater's bats and decided to hit you after the game was clearly already over."

"THAT ARSEHOLE!" I screeched.

"Tommy was banned from the team... for life." Said Remus.

"Good." I said simply. "Now, Paddy... can you please finish explaining your torturous plans for Mr. Selwyn? I need something happy to think about."

I was stuck in the hospital for much longer than expected. Poppy had me on constant bed rest for a week. Remus and James came to visit as often as they could. Sirius however, being the clingy mutt that he is, never left my side. Even when Party Pooper Poppy told him visiting hours were over, he would sneak back in in Doggo form.

After my week long sentence of hospital incarceration was complete, I was itching to get Tommy back. As much as I loved the idea of throwing him in a cage with Walburga Black, a blast-ended skrewt and a vat of Bubotuber pus, it just wasn't practical. Therefore, the boys and I would need to come up with a new plan that would hit him right where it hurt... his ego.

To do this I would have to enlist the help of someone with inside knowledge of what made that tosser tick. I needed the help of my dear prat of a brother Benjamin.

Benjamin Stewart Greengrass, or Benny, was a year ahead of me and also a Ravenclaw. We didn't talk much during school... or out of school. He was a prefect, but not the cool kind like Moony... oh no. He was one of those that took the rules way way too seriously. You can only imagine his utter disgust for me and my choice of mischievous friends.

I approached my blonde haired, brown eyed, pompous prat of a brother as he made his way across the transfiguration courtyard. He may be perpetually irritated by my presence, but I was still his little sister, so there was still a small chance he would help me in my plot for revenge.

"Hey Benny!" I greeted happily, skipping along next to him.

"What do you want _Elizabeth_?" He drawled. Cranky much.

"Well, I don't know if you heard... but I got whacked with a bludger a while back-"

"I sent flowers." He said, annoyed. Yeah he sent flowers, but didn't bother to visit... Also, I was allergic to the flowers. Idiot.

"Yeah... right... well I was wondering if you could help me.. erm.. figure out how to get Tommy back.." I said hesitantly with an innocent smile.

"El-" he began, but I cut him off before he could refuse me.

"I know you hate my friends and our pranks, but you don't even have to do anything! I just need some inside information!" I said in a rush. "Please? For me?" I gave him my best puppy dog eyes, a skill I have perfected thanks to all my time spent with Sirius.

He tried to resist. He tried rather valiantly. But he was no match for my little sister cuteness. "What do you need to know?" He sighed.

"Everything." I said grinning evilly.

"YOU GOT BENNY STICK-IN-THE-MUD GREENGRASS TO HELP US WITH A PRANK?!?" Howled James. "HOW?!"

"Magic." I replied cheekily.

"YOU IMPERIOUSED HIM?!" Screamed Remus with uncharacteristic enthusiasm.

"NO!" Although that was one of my back-up plans...

"THEN HOW?!" Barked Sirius.

"I gave him the puppy dog eyes." I said casually while looking down at my nails.

"Oh. That makes sense. So what did he tell you?" Asked a now less intense Remus.

"Apparently, Tommy is rather fond of his hair-"

"Shouldn't be, mine is so much better." Interrupted Sirius. It was true. For all of the many faults Sirius possessed, his hair was not one of them.

"Anyways, he happens to use a specific hair potion every morning.. can anyone guess what specific hair potion that may be?" I said slyly, looking pointedly at James.

It took a moment, but then it clicked. "Merlin's bearded dragon, this is going to be good." James said rubbing his hands together like an evil genius.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

It was a truly glorious Friday afternoon when Tommy Selwyn walked into the Great Hall sporting a interesting new hairstyle. We could have just dyed his hair an unflattering color, but why stop there?!

Tommy's usual brunette locks had been buzzed short and dyed Neon Green... and by neon I mean it. He was positively _glowing_. Oh, but the fun didn't stop there! On the back of his head, written in bold black letters against the glowing green, were the words ' **WORLD'S BIGGEST** **PRAT** '. The best part was the fact that we used a version of the the permanent sticking charm on the dye in his Sleekeasy Hair Potion.

The boys and I howled in laughter (along with the rest of the school). I swear I even saw Benny crack a smile. Sirius wiped the tears of joy from my eyes as I regained my composure.

O.o.O.o.O

Later that night, as I was leaving detention with McGonagall for replacing all of the teacups in the staff room with 'nose biting tea cups', I heard the not-so-sneaky whisperings of what seemed to be a rather shifty lot.

I pressed myself against the wall, peaking quickly around the corner to see who it was.

There, standing in an abandoned corridor, well after curfew, was Benny and Tommy Selwyn, along with Slytherins, Avery, Mulciber, Snivellus, and Regulus Black.

 _What the..._

They began to move down the hall towards nothing good, but thankfully away from me. I sprinted up to Gryffindor tower to the boys dorm, not even knocking. I was welcomed by the sight of three boys eating my favorite candy, pepper imps... without me. We would need to discuss this later, but for now, I had more pressing matters to attend to.

"ELLIE! I COULD HAVE BEEN NAKED!" Shrieked Sirius as soon as I opened the door. As if he would have actually cared.

I was panting, out of breath, and seriously regretting my aversion to cardio. "My brother— _your_ brother" I said pointing to Sirius. "Shifty— get— map—" I panted.

I don't know if they even understood what I was trying to say, but James pulled the map out of his trunk anyway. I snatched it out his hands, quickly said the 'magic words' and frantically searched for my brother.

I found them all huddled in the dungeons... with _Mary_ _McDonald_? Now Tommy and my brother I could kind of understand hanging around those other shifty tossers, but Mary?

"Why is Mary with them?" Asked Remus.

Mary McDonald was a Gryffindor gal in my year along with Lily, Alice, and Marlene. The dark headed girl with forest green eyes always joined in our Hide-and-seek games and was almost nauseatingly sweet... so why was she down in the dungeons hanging out with my brother and a bunch of junior death eaters? I panicked when I remembered how Mary would often run down for a late night cup of tea.

She had always had terrible trouble sleeping at night. In second year, it got so bad that she went to the hospital wing with a concussion after running into a pillar with her eyes closed. Tea seemed to be the only thing that could counteract the insomnia besides taking some pretty intense sleeping draughts. That year, Professor McGonnagall gave her permission to go down the kitchens at night for some tea as needed.

"Tea..." I said absentmindedly. "We need to go check on her. Now." I said.

Again, I'm not sure if the others had any idea what was going, but it's a true testament to our friendship that they came along anyway. James, Sirius, and I were under the cloak, while Moony was walking about under the guise of his prefect status. We followed the map and made our way quietly toward the sketchy group, only to be greeted with a truly horrifying sight.

Poor Mary was in the air, upside down, as if hanging by an invisible rope around her ankle, sobbing, with a few drops of blood tricking down her arm. On the floor, below the terrified girl clad in Gryffindor lion patterned pajamas, was her wand, her hall pass from McGonagall, and a shattered tea cup.

"BENNY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I screamed, wand out, running toward my brother. "YOU PUT HER DOWN _NOW_." I bellowed to the group, eyes ablaze with fury.

"Watch it Greengrass." Drawled Snivellus, who looked almost bored with the whole kerfuffle. His eyes briefly flashed to the still sobbing Mary hanging in the air.

"SHUT IT YOU GREASY HEADED SNAKE!" yelled Sirius. His jaw was clenched, teeth bared, and his hand tightly gripped around his wand which was now pointed intently at Snivellus's face. His whole aura screamed 'danger', something I had only witnessed around other members of the Black family tree.

"LEVICORPUS!" Exclaimed Mulciber, pointing his wand at me with a poisonous sneer adorning his stupid face.

That arse.

I was yanked up by my ankle by an invisible rope just like Mary. Thankfully, I still hand my wand. I looked around and saw Remus, Sirius, and James with their wands out, huddled protectively around me. 'Aw. So sweet. Now get me down!' I thought.

I glanced to the group of sketchy individuals and was shocked to see my brother—my rule abiding brother with an unhealthy aversion to conflict—punching the living daylights out of Mulciber. He stopped for a moment, turned and flicked his wand toward me and Mary to let us down, not so gently, with the counter-curse. He was pulling back to punch Mulciber's bloody stupid face again when a wide eyed Professor Slughorn waddled out into the hall in a lavender night robe and fluffy pink slippers.

O.o.O.o.O

"I'm fine, now can I please get out of here?" I said impatiently.

It was an uncommonly beautiful Saturday afternoon and where was I? In the hospital wing. AGAIN. Now, a bludger to the head, that's understandable. Getting clawed up by a werewolf? Perfectly sensible. But getting bump on the head? Nope. Not a good enough reason to get stuck here again. I wanted _out_.

"Poppy said no..." Remus informed me hesitantly. I looked around to get James on my side, but he was over by Mary's bed with an arm around a truly distraught Lily. I loved Mary, and wanted to be there for her too, but I was going to go _insane_ if I didn't get out of this overtly sanitized prison. So, my next option was Sirius.

"Sirius.." I said sweetly giving my very bestest puppy dog eyes and a little pout playing at my lips.

He threw his hands over his eyes in an effort to shield himself. "N-no. Stop it. Th-That's not fair."

I reached up to gently pull his hands away from his eyes, holding them in mine. He looked to where Remus had been standing for help, but Moony had run away to stand by Mary's bed too.

"Paddy? Please?" I said softly in a voice so sweet I wouldn't be surprised if he got a cavity just listening. My puppy dog eyes were going at full force as he made eye contact with me. He looked like he was going to cry. I almost felt bad. Almost.

And just like that, he leaned down for me to climb onto his back and said, "hurry before the others see." I smiled wide and hopped on without a moments hesitation. We were out of the hospital wing and down the hall before we heard a disgruntled Madam Pomfrey AKA Poppy, calling for me to come back. I gripped Sirius tighter and said, "Run!"

We made it all the way to the Black Lake before tumbling down onto the grass by our favorite beech tree in a fit of laughter. "Thank you Sir Padfoot for saving me! You are truly my knight and shining armor!" I laughed.

"Anything for you Lady Greengrass!" He laughed back.

"Ah, weird night huh?" I said with a sigh as we laid back in the grass together looking up at the cloudless sky.

"Yeah, weird. I still can't figure out why Benny would hang out with my brother and those gits." Sirius said, eyebrows knitted together. "I mean he's obviously not one of my favorite people, but I never thought he would get caught up in all that dark arts stuff."

"Your guess is as good as mine." I said with a sigh. "I still can't believe what they did to poor Mary."

Mary was in decidedly worse shape than I was. Last night, she was heading back from the kitchens, as I suspected, when she ran into the group of bullies. They cornered her, hoisted her up, threw a few hexes at her. Then, Selwyn, being the vile scummy piece of garbage that he is, carved the words "blood traitor" into her arm. It was foul, but not nearly as awful as what Mulciber tried to do to her. According to Benny, he was about to cast the cruciatus curse on Mary before we showed up, and probably wouldn't have hesitated to do the same to me if my Marauder body guards hadn't been there. Mulciber was expelled that night by ol' Dumbles, and Selwyn was suspended for two months.

The whole attack, while disturbing in and of itself, was even more terrible considering Mary and Severus- er Snivellus, are (or _were_ ) _friends_... Actually, I'm fairly certain sure she fancied the slimy git. _Why?_ I couldn't tell you. But she got all goo goo eyed every time she hung out with him, she always spoke highly of him, and she was heavily opposed our pranks on the slimy Slytherin... though maybe not so much anymore.

"It was horrible.. but to be honest I'm just thankful it wasn't you." Sirius said seriously, no pun intended. "I would have done a lot worse than break someone's nose." He said in a low voice.

"Sirius..." I started.

"No, honestly. I don't even want to think about it." He said with his eyes closed. "Elizabeth, you're my best friend. If anything happened to you. If I ever lost you...I-I don't know what I'd do." He said turning his head to look me in the eyes.

"Same." I said truthfully. As much as he annoys me, I'd be shattered if I had to go through life without that clingy, idiotic mutt.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

It had been a couple of weeks after the whole "Mary vs the Snakes" incident. In that time I began to take notice of couple of things I hadn't beforehand. First, were my brother's friends. Perhaps I hadn't cared enough to really notice before, but he was almost exclusively friends with Purebloods. I found it odd. Sure we had grown up amongst all that pureblood society stuff, but our family was a lot like the Potters in that we didn't really care about where someone came from, only the character that they possessed.

Another thing I started to notice, that I really hadn't paid much attention to until after Sirius broke me out of the hospital, was just how many girls fawned over him.

Of course he was stupid handsome and funny, but there was another more broken side to him that people didn't see. These girls didn't know him like I had. They hadn't grown up beside him. They had no idea who he really was. How could they like him, or _love_ him as some would profess, if they didn't even know the first thing about him!? Sirius was completely unbothered by all of this.. actually being the dramatic little attention whore he was, I'm sure he loved it.

But that's the thing about Sirius. He loves positive attention. He craves it. He never had anyone to tell him how important or special or loved he was growing up and now he just takes it where ever he can get it.

"Hey Elizabeth?" Said a timid Hufflepuff girl as I sat alone in the Library waiting for Remus.

"Uh.. hey uh..?" I had no clue who this girl was.

"Susan." She provided.

"Oh hey Susan!? Er... what's up?" I say awkwardly. I guess the girl named Susan took this as an invitation to join me because she just plopped herself down in the chair beside me.

"Um well.. you're friends with Sirius right?" She probed.

"Uh yeah? He's my best friend," I say maybe a bit more rudely than was entirely necessary.

"Um is that all?" She asked. What else would there be? It was common knowledge that we were partners in crime.

"I'm not sure what you're asking.." I say.

"Oh uh well you two aren't _together_ are you?" She asked. _Together_?...oh Merlin!

"Oh Merlin!" I exclaimed. Why didn't I say no? Just say no Ellie!

This was about the time when Moony showed up. He walked up looking between my shocked expression and Susan's face which I suppose was just confused, to be honest I wasn't paying attention.

"Er.. you okay Snugs?" Remus asked as he sat down at the table across from me.

"Uh..." I don't know why it was so hard form me to say no again.

"Um.. I-I'll just talk to you later Elizabeth..." Susan said once she realized she was no longer welcome.

"What the hell..." Remus said softly as Susan walked out the Library.

"I- er- she asked me.. uh.." I stuttered out. I looked around and found several faces swiftly look away from our direction. "Rem. Do you mind if we move this party somewhere else?" I asked. He nodded.

We made our way to a quiet, secluded part of the library where no one would disturb or eves drop on us. "Now will you please tell me what the hell is wrong with you?!" Cranky Moony hissed. Must be getting close to the full moon...

"Um. Well first she asked if me and Sirius were friends. And I told her yes, we were best friends. Then she asked if w-we.. if we were uh.. _together_.." I whispered the last word then stupid cheeky werewolf had the audacity to laughed at me. "Why are you laughing at me?!"

He calmed down.. then ignored my question and asked a question of his own. "What did you tell her?"

"I- uh I didn't really answer her... and then you showed up." I said hesitantly.

"Why didn't you answer her?" He asked. I really hate it when he just attacks me with questions like this.

"I don't know." I answer.

"It's an easy question..." he taunted with a smirk. "Unless it's not.."

 _Why is he being so annoyingly cryptic?!_

"I'm not following." I said shaking my head with a frown at my brow, "stop being so difficult and just tell me what ever it is you're trying to get at." I said slumping down onto he table with my chin rested on my folded arms.

He let out a breath in exasperated annoyance. "You like Sirius." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 _WHAT?!_

" _WHAT?!_ " I whisper shouted.

"You. Like. Sirius." He said smugly.

"I-I-I..." I sputtered. Again I can't seem to be able to say the word no today. It's so simple! Just say NO!

"You can't deny it because you are cursed with the gift of brutal honesty." He said factually.

"Stop it! Just stop it!" I said putting my hands over my ears. "Moony just stop." I pleaded.

He rolled his eyes. "You know I'm right. James knows it too.. why do you think we find it so hilarious when you two snuggle together?"

"James knows nothing. You know nothing. I know nothing. This never happened." I say unconvincingly standing up and trying to put my things away.

"Ellie." Remus said, gently pulling me back down by the wrist, "Ellie. It's okay." He said reassuringly.

"No it's not. Who else thinks this?!" I ask panicked.

"Ellie. It's obvious." He says. _Not what I asked Moony!!_

"Moony. Answer. The. Question." I say as sternly as I could muster. But when I get grumpy I somehow never quite manage to be as intimidating as hope I to be.

He sighed. "Most people suspect you two are either already together or... Er..."

"Out with it Moony."

"... Erm or they think you two are... uh.. friends with benefits." He cringed.

"WHAT?!" I actually bellowed. I was fuming.

"Okay I think we need to go outside now. Come on." He said hastily shoving both our things into our bags and dragging an Angry Ellie out of the library.

We were walking towards the lake when it happened. When we saw _them_. Susan and Sirius. In the hall. Snogging like it was the end of the freaking world.

I was angry before.. but now I had the deep burning desire to punch her repeatedly straight in her cute perfect little nose. I also felt like someone had just stabbed me in the stomach. I couldn't breath. I couldn't move. I couldn't look away.

I stopped in my tracks while Remus kept walking. He turned around looking for me and called out "Ellie?!" Just loud enough for the two snogging teenagers to pause and look toward him, body's still pressed together, hands still wrapped around one another.

Remus saw me before he saw them. "Ellie what's wrong? ...oh Merlin." He said wide eyed as he followed my gaze.

"Ellie. Let's go." He whispered, grabbing my arm. I must have followed, but I don't remember feeling my feet move. I was shaking and I felt like I was going to be sick.

I remember seeing Sirius's shocked confused face as he pulled away from the girl named Susan who looked rather annoyed.

Remus picked up the pace. We made our way to the lake and I sat down. I was hyperventilating with my head between my knees, heart pounding. I felt like I was dying. In case you were wondering, I was having what some may describe as a panic attack.

After a few minutes and some deep breathing lead by Remus, I started to feel myself come back to normal... somewhat. Luckily Remus, is an extraordinarily calming presence during a crisis, as long as the crisis isn't his own.

"Ellie? Oh Merlin! Ellie are you okay?!" Called the voice of my curly haired best friend. _Great. Just great._

"Sirius. Leave." Remus said sternly.

"NO! What's wrong with her!? Is she okay? Remus tell me what's going on!" He pleaded fiercely.

"Sirius. She'll be okay, please just go away." Remus said.

" _No_!" He side stepped Remus and came towards me. I hadn't noticed I was crying until now... ugh how lovely. "Ellie? Ellie what's wrong?!" He said kneeling down in front of me.

My mind flashed back to seeing him with Susan and I scooted away from him quickly. "Ellie? What happened?! Did someone hurt you?"

 _Yes you idiot. You._

"Sirius! Leave her alone!" Remus demanded.

Sirius took one last look at me, reaching out to wipe the tears from my cheeks gently, then got up and walked hesitantly back toward the castle.

"Ellie I'm so sorry! I-I thought he liked you too! I didn't know!" Remus said as I reached out to cry into his shoulder.

"Well you should be happy." I said sarcastically into his shoulder.

"What? Why?" He asked.

"You were right. I do like him." I said before crying harder as the image of him and Susan vividly replayed in my mind.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

My eyes were puffy and my nose was red as I walked back towards the castle with Remus. We were headed toward Gryffindor Tower to pig out on chocolate and Pepper Imps, but I was moving slow. The emotionally draining events of the day and terrifying realization that I had the hots for my best friend really took the energy right out of me. Remus eventually got impatient with my lallygagging and stopped abruptly.

"Okay Snugs. Hop on." He said leaning down for me to hop on his back.

"W-what?" I asked.

"I'd like to get there before I graduate, so please hop on." He replied.

"If you say so.." I hopped on happily and we continued on our way at a much brisker pace than before.

Once we gave the fat lady the password and headed into the common room we were immediately greeted by a concerned and confused Sirius Black.

"Snugs?" He said softly. He looked almost hurt. I ducked my head into Remus's Shoulder and whispered to him that I didn't wanna talk to him yet.

"Here, you head on up, and I'll try to talk to him... I'll just let him know you need some time." He whispered.

I headed up the stairs but stopped when I was out of view. I could hear them talking down below and I sat down to listen.

"Moony what happened?" Sirius asked, voice dripping with concern.

"She had a panic attack." Remus informed him.

"It's been ages since she's had one though! Not since her mum died." Sirius countered.

"Well she received some Er- shocking information today." Remus said.

"What information!? Is anyone hurt?! What aren't you telling me Remus!?"

Remus's voice became a little more difficult to hear. "She saw you and Susan in the hall."

"Yes? And? What does that have to do with this?" Sirius said annoyed.

Remus groaned. "It has everything to do with it."

"Still not following..." Sirius said confused.

"Think about it Paddy. She saw you snogging another girl and then she got upset..." he trailed off.

"Oh Merlin. Oh no. No no no." He Muttered to himself. "Are you sure?!" He pressed.

"Absolutely positive."

"Where is she?" Sirius asked.

"She's waiting in the dorm, we were going to eat candy... Sirius stop! Just give her some time!" Remus scolded.

"No." Stupid stubborn boy. His animagus should really be a mule. I heard as footsteps walked up the stairs I was sitting on. I quickly got up and scurried into the boys room quietly before the footsteps reached the door. In my rush, I forgot that I was there to hang out with Remus and flopped onto Sirius's bed, laying on my stomach with my face buried into his pillow. It smelled like him and it calmed me down.

The footsteps stopped at the door. A moment passed and then a couple of soft knocks. I didn't answer. Slowly the door creeped open. I heard as the figure made its way across the room and then felt as the bed shifted with their weight as they sat down next where I was laying.

"Snugs?" Sirius said softly. "Ellie?" He tried again. I buried myself deeper into the pillow. "Ellie, s-she kissed me." He said as if he was in pain. I wanted to shout at him. I want to to yell 'I KNOW' but I couldn't move. I couldn't face him. It all felt so surreal. "Ellie. She kissed me. I-i didn't kiss her. I was trying to get her off of me!"

I turned my head so that it was on the side facing him. "What?" I mumbled. I saw him now. His hair was much messier than usual. His eyes were red and bloodshot.

"Ellie. I didn't kiss her. I don't even like her." He said seriously.

I tucked my head back into the pillow. "That's harassment you know." I mumbled. He chuckled softly.

"Scoot over." He said. I shifted like a little worm to the side... taking the pillow with me. He reached down under the bed for the spare he kept in case I spent the night and laid down next to me.

Now, I had laid beside Sirius hundreds of times. We had been best friends since we were 11 and I spent the night in their room at least once a week, though he usually ended up on the floor. However, this particular time, unlike any of the others, I had butterflies in my stomach. I felt as he started to gently play with my hair. It was so relaxing. I scooted closer to him and felt him laugh softly. "Oh you don't hate me anymore?"

"I never hated you." I mumbled turning my head to face him. "I hated Susan." He laughed again. "It's not funny. I almost punched her in the nose." He laughed harder.

"Ugh!" I groaned as turned my self to the side, facing away from him.

"I'm sorry Snugs." He said. I was silent. "Ellie. I'm sorry for everything."

"It's fine. I don't even know why I cared. I-I just was upset you didn't tell me you were going out with Susan." I lied unconvincingly.

He sighed deeply. "You're a terrible liar Snugs." He said in a lower voice.

I turned onto my other side to face him. "I wasn't lying." I lied again, even more unconvincingly. He rolled his eyes.

"If I saw you snogging some random guy in a hallway I would want to punch them in the nose too." He said with the faintest smirk on his face. "I would have been upset, but not because you didn't tell me about him. I'd be upset because it should have been me."

My breath caught in my throat and I could feel my face getting hotter and hotter. This could not be happening. He was my best friend. What would it do to the Marauders if we were together? What what happen if things went south?!

"What?" I Squeaked.

"I said I'd be jealous if someone else kissed you." He said fully smirking at my blushing face. "Just like how you must have felt earlier."

"I wasn't jealous." I grumbled noticing just how close his face was to mine. I could feel his breath lightly wafting onto my skin blowing the little baby hairs around my face.

"Yes, you were.." he said quietly, slowly moving closer to my face. I hadn't kissed anyone before, but I had a pretty good idea that that's where this was headed.

So as he began to lean in closer, lips almost touching mine, I did the only thing I could think of.

I turned into a cat.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Now, you may be asking yourself, 'why would she turn into a cat when the boy she likes is trying to kiss her?!'. It's a valid question. It's also the exact same question I'm sure Sirius was asking himself in the moment, and it sure as hell was the question Lily Evans asked when I begrudgingly recounted the dramatic events of the previous day to her the following morning.

Sunday Morning

"Lily I told you, I panicked!" I say hiding my face in shame. Lily and I were sitting in the girls dorm alone, I had a pillow to my chest and a bright red tinge to my face.

Lily started flailing her arms in the air, never a good sign. "Ellie!" She exclaimed before collecting herself. "Okay, so he tries to kiss you—you stupidly turn into a freaking cat—what happened next? What did he do? What did you do?!" She asks quickly.

Saturday Afternoon

"What the..." Sirius says as he realizes he's about half a centimeter away from kissing a furry little feline.

I sat there shocked for a moment, taking in his stupid handsome, albeit currently bewildered, face. Yes his eyes are beautiful, grey with little flecks of blue, but he also has those stupid long thick eye lashes that make his puppy-dog pout that much more effective. I scan down his face past his perfectly shaped nose and cheekbones, to his stupid pouty lips. He has a little scar on his bottom lip over to the left that's hard to see if you don't know it's there. He got it after a particularly painful punishment from Walburga Black over Christmas Holidays our third year.

I quickly snap out of my creepy staring session and begin to wiggle out of his arms. I ran out the dorm, down the stairs, and through the common room, tripping Milo McGonagall in the process. Oops.

"Good Godric!" Exclaimed James I galloped full force toward where he was sitting with Remus, presumably talking about me and Sirius. Ignored his indignant look of confusion and started pulling on the hem of Remus's trousers with my teeth to get him to open the damn portrait hole... you know because I'm still a freaking cat.

Eventually, he and James get the hint and hastily walk toward the portrait hole and follow me outside. I can hear Sirius running to catch up. I pick up the pace once I'm outside. I ran as fast as my cute little padded paws would take me toward the Black Lake. I then quickly climbed up my favorite beech tree where I stayed until it started to get dark and the boys finally headed back to the castle. Well.. Remus and James went to the castle. Sirius turned into Padfoot.

It wasn't long after they left that I got tired and climbed down. At least if he we were both animals I wouldn't have to talk to him. The black dog was curled into a ball at the base of the tree and so I did the only logical thing I could think of and snuggled up beside his warm canine chest.

I'm not sure how it happened, but the next thing I know I was being carried into the castle, still in cat form, by a very human and very sleepy Sirius Black. He carried me all the way up to Gryffindor Tower before setting me down at the girls stairs.

I hopped back into his arms, but he set me down again looking forlorn. I hated seeing him like that.

I knew it was my fault. I probably humiliated him. But honestly, that was never my intention. I had never kissed anyone before, and there I was about to be smooched, only a couple of hours after both realizing I fancied my best friend and seeing him kiss another girl. I couldn't do it. I didn't want it to be like that. Also, it honestly felt so surreal that I just panicked. I did the only thing I could think of to stall and give myself time to figure out what the hell was happening. It was all too much! I didn't know what things would be like now, and that scared me.

However, I was absolutely sure that I liked him. Actually, if we're being honest, I was absolutely sure I loved him. Extreme? Yes, but true.

So, with this information in mind, I ran between the forlorn Sirius's legs and straight up to the boys dorm. He followed, suspiciously. He opened the door and I jumped onto the foot of his bed, curled into a ball and waited for him to join me.

Of course he _had_ to be chivalrous and began to lay down on the floor. I got up and grabbed a chunk of his shirt sleeve with my teeth and dragged him up to the bed. Again he followed, suspiciously. He laid down and I snuggled into his warm chest, still as a cat, and we fell asleep. Sometime, late in the night I turned back into human Ellie, still wrapped up safely in his arms with my head on his chest.

It was early next morning when I awoke with my head still snuggled into his chest, legs intertwined. The other boys were still asleep, but Sirius was awake softly playing with my hair in a way that gave me butterflies, smiling softly down at me. I smiled back at him.

"El, I'm so sorr-" he began to whisper. _Don't_ _ruin the moment you idiot!_

I shushed him raising a finger to his lips. He kissed my finger then intertwined my hand in his hand that wasn't playing with my hair, and we fell asleep again.

Later, when he was definitely asleep, I slipped out of his arms and went to the girls dorm to get ready for breakfast.

It was nearing the end of breakfast that Sunday, so it was only me and lily in the dorm. She took one look at me and I knew that James and Remus had filled her in on something.

"Explain. Now." She said firmly, giving her signature 'Lily Evans Truth Telling Glare'.

So that bring us full circle.

After I explained to her what happened between me turning into my animagus and showing up in the dorm that morning she just kinda looked at me for a while.

"Lily?" I asked quietly looking down at the pillow in my arms. What do I do?" My voice cracking.

"You need to talk to Sirius." She said simply.

I was afraid she would say that.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

 _You've just got to talk to him El. No big deal. Just walk up to him and say... what do I say?! 'Hello friend! How's your morning been? I'm in love with you, oh can you pass the bacon?' Not bloody likely._

Oh the whole thing was becoming much more complicated than it really needed to be, no doubt about that.

I begrudgingly went to breakfast, only because Lily insisted that I be properly nourished (a very James Potter-ish thing to do if you ask me). I sat feeling awkward and on edge.. as if Sirius would pop up out of no where. Thankfully he didn't, I'm pretty sure I would have turned back into a cat again if he did. Minnie would definitely not approve.

I sat and ate my breakfast (consisting entirely of bacon and French toast) and thought over things. I loved Sirius.. but I did not want to date Sirius. Actually, not true. I wanted to date the crap out of that boy.. but I didn't want what went along with dating Sirius. Dating Sirius would mean the Marauders could get awkward.. or so I told myself. I knew James and Remus shipped the two of us more than James and Lily.. which is saying something. But that annoyingly intrusive paranoid voice in my mind kept barging in and saying things like, 'IF YOU BREAK UP YOU WILL MAKE EVERYTHING SUPER FREAKING AWKWARD AND THE WORLD WILL CRUMBLE INTO ASH AND DUST UNDER THE CRUSHING WEIGHT OF YOUR AWKWARDNESS!' Now usually when encounter this intrusive voice I say, 'calm your tits you dramatic bag of neuroticism' but today I was thinking more along the lines of 'you know you have made some valid arguments,'

Once finished with my bacon with a side of teen angst, I walked back to the common room with Lily. Upon entering, I was instantly greeted by James freaking Potter. At first I thought he was going to ask Lily out again, I was actually looking forward to it... But instead, he turned his attention to me. _This will be fun._

His eyebrows were knitted together, his lips were pressed together in a straight line. "Snugs. You need to talk to him." He said in his authoritative mum voice.

"I already told her that, James." Lily said before I had a chance to speak. _Did she just call him James?_

"What exactly am I supposed to say?" I ask.

"Well why don't you start with explaining to him why you ran up a freaking tree last night to avoid him!" He said grumpily.

"Or why you avoided kissing him when you're in love with him!" Lily added.

"Hey! I never told you about being in love with him!" I say grumpily before realizing my mistake. I clamped my had over my mouth, my eyes wide, my ears burning... along with the rest of my poor face.

"YOU _LOVE_ HIM?!" James cried out. "OI! MOONY! YOU OWE ME 5 GALLEONS!" He hollered across the room to a rather pale Remus who responded with a rather rude hand gesture.

"Would you stop it?!" Lily said thwacking James on the arm. "She obviously needs our help." Lily said to the grinning bespectacled boy.

"Alright my Lily love, you're right. She does need our help." He said with a mischievous grin that made me start to worry. I know that grin. It means trouble. He leaned over to whisper something into her ear.

Then I saw something I had never seen. Something I didn't think was even possible. Creeping up upon Lily Evans's face was a mischievous grin.. a grin more mischievous than Potter's when he charmed all the Hufflepuffs to start saying obscene curse words between every other word they uttered. More mischievous that Sirius's when he transfigured Dorcas Meadows's cat, Elvendork, into a multicolored poodle.

It was terrifying. But I also felt kind of proud.

My pride quickly turned to anger when I found out what their plan was. The two of them grabbed me by either arm and all but dragged me up to the boys dorms. They quickly, and somewhat violently, shoved me into the room and then charmed the door locked. Leaving me alone with... _a half naked Sirius!?_

Sirius was shirtless, and _oh Merlin he was beautiful_. Needless to say, I blushed profusely.

He was alone in the room changing out of his night clothes and into a grey T-shirt, thankfully he already put on some jeans...

"Prongs I told you I'll be there in a-" he said shortly turning around. He stopped the moment his eyes met mine. We sort of just stood there not really knowing what to do next. The awkwardness was palpable. Should someone talk? Right? According to James and Lily, that's what I should be doing at this point.

I took a deep breath and then the words just tumbled out of my mouth like vomit.

"IloveyoualotandI'msorryIturnedintoacatandranupatreewhenyoutriedtokissme.IpanickedbutIthinkyou'restupidhandsomeandIreallylikeyout,butIalsoreallyloveyou." I say in one breath.

He stood there with a shocked expression on his face, his mouth opening and closing repeatedly like a dying fish. Understandable.

"I-I um.." he stammered before tilting his head to the side and asking, "um could you please say that again a bit slower."

"Erm.." I looked down to my now fidgeting hands, biting my lip. "I'm sorry I turned into a cat and ran up a tree when you tried to kiss me." I said softly in a normal pace. "I uh panicked, but it wasn't because I don't like you."

"You're forgiven." I looked up to see l him smiling. "I love you too by the way."

And that was the moment I died. Figuratively at least.

"I-I can't date you though." I said quickly, visibly crushing his soul like a tiny bug beneath my shoe.

"W-what? But you just said.." he began to walk closer to me. His face was the saddest thing I'd ever witnessed.

"I can't risk loosing you." I say quietly, looking down at my shuffling feet. I know, I know it was a pitiful reason for a Gryffindor. But in my defense, it's rather unrealistic to be expected to be brave every damn day of your life because of what some sentient hat said about you when you were 11.

Sirius sighed loudly, then put his hands on my shoulders. "First of all, you will never loose me. I'm your 'stupid clingy mutt' remember?" He laughed softly. "Second, life isn't worth living if you aren't willing to take some risks." His grey eyes bore into mine.

He was right of course, but I still needed some time. I didn't know how to be a girlfriend. I didn't even realize I loved him until less than 24 hours before! Not to mention, us being together could potentially implode our whole friend dynamic within the Marauders.

"Sirius I love you, but I just can't... but I don't want you to be with someone else.. especially not _Susan_..." I ramble, curling my lip at that twit's name. "but I can't be a-a _girlfriend_... not right now at least.. I-I need to process things...I need some time first... I-I-I.."

"Ellie. It's okay. I can wait." He said smiling, eyes soft, while he rubbed comforting circles on my arms. The whole hoard of butterflies in my stomach fluttered when he pressed a soft kiss to my forehead. "I'll wait as long as it takes, love."

"Thank you," I say, my voice soft, a small smile playing at my lips.. And this folks, is one of the reasons why I love him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Sirius and I had been 'not-dating' for two weeks and I was DYING. I know it sounds selfish and all, but didn't bloody care about the long term consequences anymore, I wanted Sirius Orion Black III as my boyfriend. I wanted to kiss him and snuggle and hold hands and do all that stupid mushy crap that makes sad lonely single people gag.

He had been a perfect gentleman the whole fortnight. He didn't try to kiss me again, he kept his distance, and he only slipped up a couple of times with the 'I love you's. But despite this, there was a perceivable change in our whole dynamic. It was like there was an electric charge between us when we were together. I started to regret my choice to be his not-girlfriend after literally the 2nd day of our arrangement, but being the stubborn prideful gal I am, I just _had_ to stick things out for a while. It was horrible.

On November 3rd, AKA Sirius's 16th birthday, I decided enough was enough.

"WAKEY WAKEY SNUFFLES!" I yelled whacking the drooling, sleeping, teenage boy with a fluffy pillow.

"WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP PADFOOT!" Bellowed James as he aggressively bounced on Sirius's bed. "IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY YOU BEAUTIFUL MUTT!" He sang.

"SIRIUS WAKE UP! ELLIE SAID SHE WOULD FINALLY SNOG YOU- OW!" Remus screamed before being punched by yours truly.

Sirius snapped his head up so quickly at Moony's words that I was mildly concerned he might get whiplash.

"Whaaa..." Sirius said sleepily, curly hair sticking up in every direction, pillow creases on his stupid handsome face. He looked so stinking adorable, it took every ounce of self control for me to not start snogging him senseless right then and there.

"Nothing Pads, come on! Out of bed! You have birthday presents to open!" I said dragging him over to the pile of gifts we had for him. He hadn't gotten anything from his parents for his birthday since he was sorted into Gryffindor first year, so we always made it a big deal to make the day special for him.

"Alrighty, mine is first because mine is the best!" Proclaimed James as he handed Sirius a large box wrapped (messily) in black and white pawprint patterned paper.

Sirius unwrapped the box and opened it to find a black leather jacket. His eyes instantly lit up and he smiled from ear to ear. He stood up with the jacket in hand and tried it on, subtly modeling it for us so we could get a good look. "How do I look?" He asked us.

"Hot." I answered immediately without even thinking. I don't even regret it. It was the truth. That boy looked damn fine.

James and Remus tried and failed to contain their laughter when Sirius's face turned bright red. I felt a sort of twisted satisfaction knowing I could make him blush like a tomato.

"Okay, okay, open mine now!" Remus said handing the blushing boy a shiny gold box. He opened the box to find a large photo album. He flipped through and found that the pages were full of all the magical moving photos we had taken over the years during pranks and when we were just hanging out being silly. Moony thought it would be oh-so-hilarious to devote an entire section to pictures of me and Sirius sleeping. It was decorated with pink and red glittery hearts and a charmed drawing of Cupid that would fly around from picture to picture shooting love arrows at the two of us.

Sirius laughed at the lovey dovey section and said, "Thanks Rem this is amazing." With a big grin.

"Me next! Me next!" I squealed. My gift was better than all of theirs and I knew it. I had been planning this particular gift for years. My dad, who like James and Remus was in on the whole thing, helped out a ton. He had always had a soft spot for Sirius and was thrilled when I asked him to help.

I handed him a small box neatly wrapped (by Lily) with scarlet paper. My fingers briefly brushed against his as I handed it to him and it was like an electric spark, leaving my fingers tingling causing me to blush a bit.

He opened the box to find a key. He looked at me with a quizzical expression, lifting an eyebrow. "Care to explain Snugs?" He said with a smirk. The other two could hardly contain their excitement, knowing exactly what the key was for.

I grinned and said, "It's easier if I show you."

He was very confused when the three of us dragged him out of the dorm and down to the nearest courtyard, still in his sweatpants, t-shirt, and leather jacket. I pulled something small out of my pocket and placed it on the ground. I had us all back up slightly, then I pulled out my wand and cast the spell to bring the object to its proper size.

"MERLINS SAGGY BALLS! YOU GOT ME A MOTORBIKE!?" He screamed in disbelief. I nodded, smiling and biting my lip at how adorable he looked gushing over the motorbike.

"I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!" He exclaimed picking me up in a bear hug and twirling me around.

I laughed hard at his jubilance, then tried to catch my breath. "Pads.. there's... something else!" I said happily between breaths.

"WHAT ELSE COULD THERE POSSIBLY BE?!" He yelled. He looked a bit like a madman, flailing his arms around wildly, a manic smile upon his lips.

"Well I thought you might like the honor of being my boyfriend..." I said. I didn't think it was possible for him to look more ecstatic, but apparently it was. He just beamed at me, but I guess he was too shocked to say anything, which James and Remus found hilarious, and would later tease him mercilessly for.

There my best friend stood, with the happiest cheesiest grin I have ever seen graced upon his stupid handsome face, wearing his leather jacket and pajamas with his crazy bed head hair, and all I could think was how much I loved him. How much I just wanted to hold him and never let him go. How much I wanted him to stay this happy forever.

Without even realizing what I was doing I walked up to him and wrapped my arms gently around his neck, as he wrapped his around my waist. We stood there for a moment and met each other's eyes. "So.. does this mean you'll be my boyfriend?" I ask softly. After my sudden move of boldness, I was beginning to feel a tad self-conscious with his silence.

"Hell yes," he said just before his soft lips met mine. The kiss was gentle yet desperate, our lips moving together in perfect synchronization. I could taste his mint chapstick, I could smell the sent of his shampoo lingering from his hair. My heart was beating so wildly in my chest I would have feared I was going to have a heart attack were it any other moment. I slowly tangled my fingers in his soft curly hair, pulling him closer, savoring every moment. It was as if every fear and anxious thought I had leading up to this moment evaporated the instant his lips met mine. It all felt so right. Soon, all too soon, he pulled away breathlessly, placing his forehead against mine, smiling.

Remus and James were cheering, of course, and I swore I could hear Moony say something about James owing him 10 Galleons.

Sirius kissed my nose and said, "Thank you so much for not turning into a cat that time." I giggled, then pulled away. "So please tell me, my dear, sweet, lovely, drop dead gorgeous, girlfriend, how you managed this," he said gesturing to the motorbike beside us.

"Well... I had some help.. from Wally," I said with a smirk. Wally is what Sirius _insists_ on calling my dad, William Thomas Greengrass.

"WALLY?! IS HE HERE?!" Sirius asked looking around the courtyard like my dad would just pop out behind a gargoyle.

"No, no, but he helped me find and fix the Motorbike." I said. Sirius smiled, but I could tell he was a little disappointed my dad wasn't lurking about. I swear he gets more excited to see him than Benny does.

"Alrighty love birds, time to go! We have breakfast to eat, rules to break, mischief to manage!" James said, shrinking the bike down once more and placing it in Sirius's hands.

We went back to the dorms to get ready for the day and I could not wipe the annoying smile off of my face.

"well don't you look chipper." said Alice as I entered the girls dorm in a daze.

"ah.. I suppose I am." I said airily, picking out my socks with a far away look in my eye.

"oh! Today is Sirius's birthday, isn't it?!" Exclaimed Marlene.

"It is indeed," I replied walking to the bathroom, twirling.

"Oh he is so hot... I think he may ask me to Hogsmead this weekend." Marlene gushed.

"Oh he is... HOLD UP! _EXCUSE ME?!_ " I said... loudly. My mood went from love struck Disney Princess to a Hangry Hungarian Horntail Dragon within half a second.

"Ellie, why do you have to be so loud?" Marlene grumbled, "I was talking about how I think I can finally get that sexy boy to ask me out." she said, obviously oblivious to the fact that HE WAS IN LOVE WITH MEEEEE.

"I don't think that's going to happen." I snapped.

"And why is that?" she said in a tone of boredom.

"Because he's my boyfriend." I said through gritted teeth, rage building up within me.

Marlene laughed at me. Laughed! The AUDACITY! "Yeah, okay, sure.." she said sarcastically. "You two have hardly been within three feet of each other for weeks! Besides, you're not exactly his type," she said. _Who does this chick think she is?! Does she not realize I possess the ways and means to prank her into oblivion?_

Alice, who had run off to get Lily from the bathroom the moment that Marlene made her first comment about Sirius, just returned, ginger in tow.

I was red with anger, and about one more rude comment away from breaking that stupid upturned nose of hers with my fist when Lily came between us.

"Ellie. Come on, I want to try a new hair trick out on you.." she said soothingly, trying to drag me away.

"Fine." I said. Marlene would learn the truth soon enough.

Lily did do my hair that morning. I told her and and Alice all about the events of the morning and they squealed the appropriate amount.

I walked down the steps to the common room to find Sirius waiting for me looking at me the way James looks at Lily. My tummy did a little flip flop and then another when noticed he was wearing his leather jacket. So hot.

I beamed back at him and was bouncing toward him to envelop him into a hug when our lovely moment was poisoned by none other than _Marlene_. That horrid hissing gargoyle I call a roommate waltzed right up to MY BOYFRIEND and started to try to flirt with him, touching his arm and batting her over mascaraed lashes.

"Um... Marls.. I'm terribly sorry but I have a beautiful girlfriend I need to escort down to breakfast. You see, she needs bacon in her system before she is of any use to the world." Sirius said to Marlene, winking at me. "It's rather urgent."

Sirius then swooped over to me, pulling me into a quick passionate kiss, saying "good morning my love!", then walked arm in arm with me out of the common room as if it was the most normal thing in the word. If that didn't get the message across to Marlene that Sirius was off limits, I honestly don't know what would.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Who would have guessed that an idiot like Sirius Black could be the worlds best boyfriend? Certainly not me. Then again, I also thought that my brother was a good person, and that was definitely no longer true.

Ah! I need to explain, don't I? Alright, well you may recall how I found that blonde haired brown eyed pile of hippogriff dung hanging out with the blokes who were terrorizing Mary McDonald. Well, as it turns out, that was not the first, nor the last time he had a rendezvoused with those shifty tossers...

* * *

"Benny!" I called out, excited to tell my brother the joyous news. "Benny! I have something to... tell.. you..." I ended awkwardly realizing whom he was with...

He sighed exasperatedly, "Make it quick Elizabeth." He said rolling his eyes. Rude much?

"Erm.." I was feeling a tad uncomfortable with the amount of Slytherins currently glaring at me, one being Sirius's brother Regulus. "It's about Sirius..." I said. I may have been imagining it, but I swore I could see Regulus's eyes flash with interest for a moment. "Um I gave him the motorbike-"

Benny scoffed, "You mean that waste of time you and father have been tinkering with for ages?" He said with a callous laugh. Why was he being such a prat? He thought the bike was, and I quote "brilliant!" when we first started fixing it.

"Okay, that was rude... Anyways, I gave it to him for his birthday this morning and.." I paused for a moment, taking in Benny's compete and utter indifference toward what I was saying. I was so excited to tell him this earlier, but now I felt like an unwanted bug crawling on someone's sandwich. "And now he's my boyfriend... yayyy..." I say awkwardly with mock enthusiasm, doing an awkward jazz hands gesture to go along.

"I thought he already was?" Benny said uninterestedly.

"No! Ugh! Why do you have to be such a wet blanket Benny!" I said stomping my foot in annoyance, crossing my arms and pouting. For a moment I saw the faintest smirk on Regulus's lips... but a second later his idiot of a big brother joined our oh so happy conversation.

"Ellie, why do you look like someone stole all your cat treats?" Sirius whispered in my ear as he came up hugging me from behind, wrapping his arms around my waist. I smiled up at him, then remembered I was mad at benny and pouted grumpily.

"I'll tell you later, let's just go." I told my gorgeous stupid handsome new boyfriend. "Bye Benny." I said to the prat. He ignored me.

Me and Mr. stupid handsome were walking back to Gryffindor tower, hand in hand.

"Okay, wanna tell me why your brother was hanging out in the snake pit?" Sirius inquired.

"I have no idea. I just wanted to tell him how we were together now. I thought he would be happy for me! But he just acted like he didn't care..." I said sadly. "Also, he called the bike a waste of time. I think we need to prank him for that comment alone." I said causing Sirius to chuckle.

"Well we should get to planning shouldn't we!" He said happily. "Oh! Speaking of planning... there's something I wanted to ask you," he said, looking down at me lovingly. I waited for a long while for him to go on, but he just kept silent, smirking when he saw how impatient I was getting.

"Well ask me already!" More silence. " Come on! The anticipation is killing me!" I said dramatically, pulling my hand away from his and clutching it to my heart. He smirked wider, but still didn't say anything. "Please Sir Snuffles! Asketh the question..eth or I may perish!" I said wallowing on the floor of the crowded corridor, the back of my hand to my forehead. Some people stopped to watch, most looked rather amused, but some others looked like they smelled a dung bomb or something.

"Oh my love! My one truest love! Will you accompany me to the village of Hogsmead this fine weeks end?" Sirius pleaded, playing along. He was on his knees next to me, hands clutched together. "Please Lady Greengrass! Please say you will join me my love!" He begged dramatically.

"Yes Sir Snuffles! Nothing would make me happier!" I giggled. He stood up and then reached down to give me a hand up as well.

"Nothing?" he said grinning mischievously. As I stood up he pulled my hand hard and I stumbled into his chest. "Not even this?" he said before kissing me passionately, one hand around my waist and the other gently resting on the side of my face. I completely forgot that we had an audience until someone wolf whistled... I later found out it was Moony who was passing through trying to get to the library.

"Ugh! Is this a joke?!" Said a sour Hufflepuff named Kelli? Katie? Carly? I don't know.. anyway, she had been trying to flirt with Sirius for ages.

"Can't you two go be annoying someplace else?" Said Marlene McKinnon disgustedly. _HA! SEE! I TOLD YOU HE WAS MINE!_

Sirius pulled away smiling to address our concerned audience members. "No, definitely not a joke. Lady Greengrass is the love of my life and she's also my date this weekend... unless _she_ was joking about going with me..." he trailed off looking at me.

"Nope." I grinned.

"Ah, well just checking." He said happily. "and I think that this is as good a place as any to kiss my remarkable girlfriend!" he said to Marlene who subsequently stormed off.

I bit my lip trying not to smile at her displeasure. "Come on! Let's go get to plotting!" I said dragging Sirius through the crowd.

* * *

That weekend, while at Hogsmead it was a lot like any other trip with Sirius to Hogsmead. The only differences being that now I got to hold his hand while we peruse the nose biting teacups at Zonkos and I got to kiss him whenever I so pleased. We were making our merry way to The Three Broomsticks for a couple of Butterbeers when we saw some shady folk doing some shifty things... worst part was, my brother was one of them.

"Sirius! Sirius!" I whisper shouted whacking his arm for him to look at what I was pointing to. "Look!"

"Is that Benny? What are they doing?" He asked quickly as he looked in the direction my finger was pointing towards the woods. "Hang on... what are they looking at?" He said. There was a whole flock of Slytherins (plus Mr. Ravenclaw Prefect Benjamin) gawking and laughing at something or another.

"I can't really tell from here, maybe we should get closer... do you still have the cloak from earlier?" I asked.

We were a tad late to Hogsmead that day. We had to wait until most people were gone to sneak into Ravenclaw tower (using the cloak) and charm Benny's fancy face cream to make him sprout feathers where a mustache should be the next time he used it.

"Yes!" He said pulling the silvery cloak out of his pocket.

We went behind a bush and pulled on the cloak, then made our way toward the sneaky tossers in the woods. As we sneaked closer, the whole horrible scene came into view. Again, they had hoisted some innocent girl upside down in the air by her ankle.

"Is that _Susan_?" I hissed to Sirius who nodded in horror. And yes.. I do mean _that_ Susan.

"We have to help her!" I said panicked.

"You're right, but Ellie, please be careful, okay?" He said sincerely. I smiled sadly up at him and nodded.

We pulled off the cloak and made our way toward the scene. When we were about halfway there they must have seen us. Susan fell to the ground with a loud thump and the bullies began to run back toward the village.

Sirius looked conflicted between wanting to help Susan and wanting to beat the crap out of the ones who were messing with her. "I'll stay and check on Susan, you go follow them and try to find James and Remus." I said.

"Ellie are you sure.." he started.

"It's fine! Just go!" I said, literally pushing him in the right direction.

I ran over to Susan who was now sitting curled up in a ball on the ground. I crouched down in front of her. "Hey Susan? Are- are you okay?" I said gently.

Her head snapped up and she looked at me completely confused. "Elizabeth?" She questioned, as if she couldn't really believe it was me.

"Um... yeah. Susan are you okay? Sirius and I saw those tossers messing with you, it looked like you hit your head pretty bad.." I said.

"Sirius?!" She said panicked.

"Yeah, he went to go chase them down." I informed her. I looked down to see her clutching her wrist. It must have been broken or something. "Is your wrist hurt?" I asked.

"Um y-yeah.. I think I may have sprained it or something.." she said distractedly.

"Here. Let me." I said holding out my hand and my wand. "Episkey!" I said pointing my wand to her hand. Between helping Remus at full moons and my own accident prone self, I had a lot of practice with healing spells.

"Thank you..." She said in disbelief. "Elizabeth... why are you being so nice to me?" She asked.

"What are you talking about?" I said. "You were being attacked by a load of junior death eaters, what was I supposed to do!?"

"But I tried to make out with your boyfriend!" She said as if I could forget.

"Well... yes... but technically he wasn't my boyfriend yet, and besides, it's sort of the reason we're together now anyway." I shrugged. "But that doesn't change the fact that you needed help. I wasn't going to leave you here just because you aren't my favorite person."

"Man, you really are sweet..." she said disappointedly. "I kind of hoped that you were some two faced slut or something, but you're actually a really nice person." She continued, looking more disappointed with every word. I wasn't sure if I should be flattered or not. "Now I feel really bad about the whole Sirius thing." She said.

"It's uh... okay." I said awkwardly trying to console the girl who had hoped I was a two faced floozy. "Water under the bridge as they say! Um..." I didn't know what else to say on the matter so I changed the subject. "Uh.. why were those pricks messing with you?"

"Oh... um Evan Rosier asked me to Hogsmead last week and I told him no... he was really put out about it... I don't think he was used to being turned down. He started bugging me when I was with my friends earlier at Scrivenshaft's trying to get some new quills. When we were leaving he told me he wanted to apologize for being so rude and asked if we could go on a walk. I went with him and he lead me here. He wouldn't let me go... and then all of his friends showed up. They thought it was funny that my shirt kept falling when I was upside down... called me a bunch of names... But then I guess they saw you and they ran away." Susan stated.

I was absolutely horrified and disgusted. My brother was one of the disgusting toads that attacked her.

"Susan. I'm so sorry." I said softly.

She was opening her mouth to respond when I heard a loud voice from the direction of the village screaming "ELLIE!"

"You can go. It's okay, I'll be fine." Susan said kindly.

"Are you sur-"

"Yes!" She said loudly causing me to jump slightly.

I left toward the village and saw Sirius, unconscious, being held up between James and Remus.

"What happened.." I said... well tried to say, I was having a hard time getting he words out from the shock of it all. I rushed over to cup his face in my hands with tears welling up in my eyes as I looked at the boy I loved in such a state. "What happened to him!?" I asked desperately.

"Benny." James growled through gritted teeth.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

There my sweet Sirius was, limp in the arms of James and Remus. Other than the fact that he was out cold and his hair being a little messier than usual, he looked perfectly fine. I deduced that Benny must have hit him with a stunning spell of some sort.

"w-what.. ?" I asked. I was still having a hard time finding words.

Remus seemed to understand what I was trying to ask. "Sirius ran after your brother and his friends." He started. "He ran past us when we were walking to Honeydukes so James could stalk Lily..." He said sending a look to James like it was a bad thing or something... THEY ARE MEANT FOR EACH OTHER! ... But that's a conversation for another day... "Anyway, we caught up with him and asked what happened and he said something about a girl in the woods.. honestly, I thought he was talking about you at first, but then I remembered seeing Susan walk off with that git Rosier..." (Remus was not a fan of his; Rosier was very outspoken about his hatred for werewolves) "...and realized something must have happened and that you probably stayed with her. We ran after your brother. When we caught up to him, Sirius shoved him into a wall and asked _'what the hell was wrong with him'_ and _'how he could let them attack some innocent girl_ '... Then Benny said something about how he thought Sirius would _enjoy the show?_ Not sure what that meant... but then Benny brought you into it... called you some _really_ disgusting things I don't want to repeat... but and that's when Sirius just completely lost his shit. He tackled Benny and punched him a few times when he refused to take back what he said about you... but eventually let him go before he did too much damage since he was your brother and all... But then..." he trailed off.

"But then that cowardly excuse for a brother you have sent three powerful stunning spells straight at Sirius's back when it was turned." James finished angrily. "That's when we tried to call out for you...we couldn't leave him here."

I was in shock. _How could Benny do such a thing?_ "We need to get him back up to the castle to see Poppy." I said as the other two nodded. We had to kind of carry/drag him by his arms... well James and Remus carried/dragged him, I was really there for moral support. Turns out Mr. Stupid Handsome is also Stupid Heavy. _We really need to figure out how to conjure a stretcher or something... maybe Minnie would help us...meh.. no... Poppy would probably be better help... lots more practice. Honestly, it would probably make life easier for her with the amount of times we come limping in..._

I was snapped out of thoughts on who I should ask to teach me how to conjure a stretcher by the sight of my prat of a brother a little ways up the path. I instantly started glaring at him and walking faster in his direction.

"Ellie..." warned James.

"We'll get him back Ellie, but we have to get Sirius back to the school first." Remus tried to reason. Unfortunately, there was no reasoning with me at this point.

"NO." I said loudly storming off. My eyes were narrowed into slits, my breath heavy with anger as I quickly made my way toward that vile toad.

"YOU DEPLORABLE PIECE OF _SCUM_!" I screeched furiously as I came closer. My wand was now pointed dangerously at his face. It looked like Sirius already gave him a black eye, and possibly a broken nose. _Nice work Paddy._ Despite his battered face, he seemed rather pleased with himself.

His gang of shifty Slytherins backed up. I could tell that they were a little afraid of the screaming wild haired blonde in front of them. _Rightfully so._ Usually, people aren't all that phased when I'm upset, so this should be a good indication of how royally pissed I was. First Susan. Then Sirius. He was _not_ getting away with this.

"What's got your wand in a knot Elizabeth?" Benny sneered with a callous laugh.

"YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT, YOU WORTHLESS COWARD!" I screamed so loud my voice broke.

"Are you going to hex me _Ellie_? " he laughed, " _Curse_ me?" He asked, laughing coldly again. "You don't have it in you." He scoffed then smirked to his cowardly friends. _Like hell I don't._

The next moment, before he knew what was happening, I sent a non-verbal stunning spell directly at his chest. He flew back and landed a couple feet away with a loud thunk. The Slytherins started pulling out their wands and moving closer to me. I ignored them. My eyes were set on Benny as I ran toward him, seething.

"If you know what's good for you, you will back away from her right now." Said a calm yet dangerous voice. I recognized that voice. It was Regulus Black.

I guess they listened to him, because I was completely uninhibited as I jumped onto Benny and started repeatedly punching him in the face. "You. No good. Cowardly. Piece of. _SCUM_!" I screamed between punches, angry tears leaking from my eyes and staining my cheeks. It was ironic really, considering Benny was the one who taught me how to throw a punch in the first place.

"Snugs. Snugs that's enough, love." Said a comforting, yet tired voice from behind me. I felt a large hand on my shoulder gently trying to pull me away from beating my brother to a pulp.

It took a moment for me to register who it was that was leading me away from my revenge. But then it clicked. "SIRIUS?!" I said in disbelief, whirling around to wrap my arms around him. He winced a little at my force. "Sirius! How-? Oh Merlin! We have to get you to the hospital wing!" I said worriedly.

"What about me?" Said the incredulous voice of a bloody and bruised Benjamin laying pathetically on the ground, clutching his very broken nose.

"You can have your _friends_ help you." I spat.

As we walked away from the pit of snakes, I stopped briefly to look at Regulus and gave him a small smile and nod. A subtle thank you of sorts. He nodded back. He had some good left in him still... I wish I could say the same for Benny.

Sirius was conscious now, but was moving slow and still needed help from James and Remus getting up to the castle.

"Ellie, are you okay?" Sirius asked.

"I'm fine, knuckles kind of hurt, but other than that I'm fine." I told him. He nodded like he was trying to convince himself it was true. "Susan! I-I just left her there!" I said suddenly remembering.

"I caught up with her friends, they went to take care of her." Remus said.

"Oh.. okay good." I said relieved.

"Hang on, are we talking about Susan as in _'The Snogging Susan'_?!" James asked.

"um.. yeah.." I said, "and uh don't call her that. She's not so bad. She said she felt bad about the whole thing with Sirius." I told the three boys who were just staring at me, purposely leaving out the bit about her being disappointed that I wasn't a two faced floozy.

"Wait. I'm sorry... did Elizabeth Ann Greengrass just say that Susan, the Susan she hated so much she wanted to punch her in the nose, was quote _'not so bad'_?!" James exclaimed. "What the hell happened in those woods?!"

"We had a nice chat. She's not terrible. Not my favorite person, that would be Moony.." I said smirking as Sirius yelped 'HEY!' "but she's not some psycho evil girl from what I can tell." I shrugged. "I still have no clue what her last name is though."

"It's Travers." Remus informed. "El, do you know why they attacked her?" he asked. I told him what Susan had told me.

"That's sick." Sirius growled. "I don't care who she is. No one deserves that." He said shaking his head. "And Benny.." he started, anger in his eyes, "you have no idea how much I wanted to kill him after what he said about you Ellie." he said in a deadly low voice.

"What exactly did he say?" I asked. Sirius shook his head, looking forward, avoiding eye contact. "Tell me what he said!" I demanded. He shook his head again. "Good Godric! I'm a big girl, I can handle it!"

"I love you Ellie, but I'm not telling you, so stop asking. All you need to know was that it was disgusting and completely untrue." Sirius said calmly.

* * *

That evening, as I lay snuggled in cat form next to Sirius in his hospital bed, all I could think of was my brother.

Benny had always been a 'stick-in-the-mud' stickler for the rules. He cared way too much about his grades and his accomplishments, but I always thought he had focused on those things as a way to distract himself. Our mother, Genevieve Greengrass, passed away with dragon pox just before Christmas my second year, Benny's third. That was around the time when he got really intense about... well everything. But this was a side of him I had never seen before. I couldn't understand what had happened to him, why he was acting the way he was... but I was determined to find out.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

I was casually sprawled out on Sirius's hospital bed (well Snugs the ragdoll cat was... but same thing) as he pet my adorably soft head, when a teenage boy suddenly came charging into the infirmary in a huff.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius growled, noticeably tensing up and glaring at the boy.

The boy let out a breath of annoyance, blowing his, now messy, dark hair out of his eyes. "I came to- ...when did you get a cat?" He asked looking at little ol' me, confusion clouding his rather handsome features.

"Does it matter?" Sirius asked, clearly annoyed, "Why are you here?"

"I came to check on my brother." Regulus said rolling his eyes at Sirius's dramatics. "But really, whose cat is that?" He asked, reaching out to pet me. _Hey hey hey! No touchy! Being an animagus could be so weird sometimes. No wonder Sirius won't let me take him on a walk as Padfoot..._

"It's mine. I'm fine." Sirius said monotone, still glaring.

"That rhymed." Regulus said with a small smile, quietly chuckling at his own cleverness then taking a seat in the wooden chair beside his bed.

"Well that's all settled, now you can leave." Grumpy Sirius said, making a pointed look at the door from which he came clambering in.

"Sirius, I came to tell you I'm sorry about what Benny did. He was completely out of line... especially when said all that about Ellie being a whore.. no one really believes she would-" Regulus said, being cut off by Sirius.

 _Excuse me?! He called me a what now?! People don't believe I would do what?!_

"We know what he said. No need to say it again." Sirius said, pulling me closer. I knew he was trying to protect me by making sure I didn't hear all the terrible things Benny said that day. It was kind of sweet... but mostly annoying. I was a big girl. I could handle my brother talking crap about me. Of course, I couldn't tell him this in person at the time, so I had to make due with using cat language.

"Ow! Geez Ellie... _fant_...uhh.. Elephant..." he said as I bit his hand. If I could laugh as I cat, I would have in that moment. _Elephant?! Really? That's the best save you could come up with Paddy?_ "Stop with the biting, Elephant!" He scolded through his teeth, shifting his glare to me. _You do not glare at your girlfriend! Bad Padfoot! No more kisses for you!_

"Your cat's name is _Elephant_?" Regulus asked incredulously, looking between Sirius and me.

"Uh. Yes?"

"Man, you're weird. Okay, so I was just trying to say I'm sorry for all that. He got a little carried away trying to impress the guys." Regulus said.

"Why would Benny want to impress them?" Sirius asked.

"Um... he wants to erm..." His brother stammered.

"He wants to be a death eater doesn't he.." Sirius stated more than he asked. _A death eater? My Benny?! Oh hell no! If he doesn't think I'm telling Dad he really is an idiot._

"Something like that..." regulus said with a shrug looking away.

"Reg. You know you don't have to hang out with those guys." Sirius said in a kinder tone than he had used since the arrival of his Slytherin little brother.

Regulus sighed, but didn't answer. "I'll see you around Siri." _Siri?_

"Bye Reggie." _Siri_ said softly as his brother walked out of the infirmary.

* * *

So Benny wanted to become a Deatheater (or something like that). My next question was _why?_ Why would he willingly want to do that? Was he trying to fight them from the inside? I hoped it was for some crazy valiant reason, but in my heart I knew that it was probably something far more nefarious.

With only a month or so left until we went back for the Holidays, I decided to observe Benny, track him on the map, and try to get as much information as I could before I confronted him when we were back home. He wouldn't dare hex me with Dad around.

* * *

It was a week before we left school for the holidays and I was still low key stalking my brother. I had learned that he had fallen out with a few of his Ravenclaw friends earlier that year over his friendship with some Slytherin girl named Kenna Selwyn... which sort of explained why he was hanging out with her Ravenclaw brother Tommy. I was sure she was the key to figuring this all out... so naturally I stalked her too.

I was in the boys dorm, rummaging through James's trunk, trying to find the map when I realized that both it and the cloak were gone... along with James. It seemed that he was doing some stalking of his own...

"Pads! Where's the map? And where's James?" I asked Sirius who was lazily sitting against the headboard, his hands behind his head, his legs outstretched and crossed over one-another at the ankle.

"It's a secret." He said smugly.

"A secret?!" I asked. _Since when was James stalking Lily a secret?_

"That's what I said Snugs." Sirius said, his face getting smugger by the second. I would get it out of him somehow.

I hopped onto the bed, "Tell me." I said fiercely.

"No." He said with a grin.

"C'mon! Just tell me! I can see it in your face that you want to!" I said poking his cheek.

"Ellie. I'm not telling you." He said shaking his head in defiance.

"Sirius Orion Black the Third! You tell me right now or I swear I will sneak into your dorm and shave your head in your sleep!"

"You wouldn't. You love my hair." He said calmly. _He is very right, but he doesn't need to know that at the current moment._

"Oh wouldn't I?" I say raising an eyebrow and putting my hands on my hips all sassily.

"I'm not intimidated by you Snugs." he said with a smirk. This called for the big guns. I leaned closer to him, looking up through my lashes with big blue eyes, the essence of a pout at my lips. "S-stop it! That's-That's cheating!" He said trying to back away. I only got closer.

"Oh screw it!" He exclaimed giving in. _Ha! I won!_ "James and Lily went on a secret date to Hogsmead using the secret passages." he said quickly.

" _WHAT_?! I thought James was just joking about kidnapping her!" I exclaimed.

"Oh that's the crazy part! She went willingly!" he said.

 _FINALLY! Maybe she finally realized they are soul mates?_

"Wait. Why haven't _you_ taken me on a romantic secret date to Hogsmead?!" I asked.

"I did. Last week. We got fire whiskey for the party tonight." he informed with a smirk

"That was _not_ a date Sirius and you know it! That was a recon mission." I say huffily. It was kind of romantic though...again, not that he needed to know that. There's just something about sneaking out in the dark, grabbing contraband alcohol, leaving the money due (plus a tip and a thank you note with a cute smiley cat picture drawn on it) where the crate of fire whiskey once stood, kissing Sirius in a dark tunnel (Minus the part where a spider landed in my hair and I screamed for him to 'KILL THAT DAMNED ARACHNID')... it's what every girl dreams of. Well... it's what _I_ dream of.

"Fine, would you like to go to Madam Puttifut's with me tomorrow evening?" he said smiling smugly, trying desperately not to laugh at my look of utter disgust.

"Yuck! Hell no!" I exclaimed. "Fine it _was_ a date." I conceded with a smile giving him a kiss on the cheek, causing him to blush slightly. So adorable. "Now, why didn't either Lily or James tell us about this date?!"

"Oh James told me alllll about it. Lily didn't say anything about it to me, but that's just because she doesn't like me all that much. I imagine they didn't tell you because they figured you would flip out about them being _soul mates_ again." He said. _I very much would have._

"Meh, valid." I half shrugged. "And Lily likes you fine by the way, she just enjoys tormenting and intimidating you more." I told Sirius slyly.

"How very Slytherin of her. No wonder she's best friends with a snake..." he grumbled mostly to himself. "You know, we haven't pranked ol' Snivelly in a while, we should think of something." Sirius suggested.

"No! We have to focus on the Christmas plan!" I say flailing my arms around in the air. I was very enthusiastic about this particular prank.

"Ohhh! Of course! Prankmas! How could I forget!" he said tapping his hand on his forehead.

"You were too focused on planning this stupid party." I said rolling my eyes.

"IT IS NOT STUPID ELLIE!" Sirius said all grouchily. (It was stupid and he knew it.)

"We're literally throwing a party because Frank Longbottom's dog, whom we have never met, had puppies... three weeks ago. What kind of a reason is that Pads?! Couldn't you just find someone with a December birthday and dedicate it to them?" I said exasperatedly.

"Well it seems silly when you say it like that!" He said childishly. "Aren't you supposed to back me up on my stupid whims now that your my girlfriend?" He asked with the hint of a smirk.

"As your girlfriend, it would be cruel of me not to point out your stupid whims." I said rolling my eyes. "But lucky for you, I love you despite them." I say cheekily.

"You act all tough, but you're just a big softy." He said with a stupid lopsided smile. "It's adorable."

"Don't ruin my reputation Pads! People refer to me as the 'Intimidating Marauder'. I make people shake in fear!" I say half-way seriously.

Sirius burst out loud with violent laughter. Not exactly the reaction I was going for.

"You're known as the 'Cute Marauder'." He said booping my nose as I looked at him with a frown. "Remus is the 'responsible one'," he continued with a smirk as I snorted. "James is the 'Dad' of the group," I nodded. It was true. "And I'm the 'sexy' one," he said proudly giving me what I guess was supposed to be a seductive wink.

"Well you aren't wrong..." I began, "about James." I said smirking.

"What about me?!" He said exasperatedly, throwing his arms in the air.

"You're the stupid handsome one." I proclaimed surely. An involuntary smile creeped up on his face.

"Thanks El." He said sweetly.

"ELLIE! THERE YOU ARE!" Exclaimed Alice as she spotted me and Sirius sitting with our backs against his bed, Pepper Imp and Peppermint Toad wrappers littering the boys dorm floor. "ELIZABETH ANN GREENGRASS! YOU GET YOUR MISCHIEVOUS LITTLE RUMP INTO THE GIRLS DORM TO GET READY OR I WILL DRAG YOU THERE MYSELF." She boomed. For someone so small she could be very loud and scary when she needed to be.

"Noooo! But _Alice_ —!" Sirius whined.

"NO." She said wagging her finger dangerously at his face. "You sir, will thank me when I'm done." She told him with a smirk before dragging me away.

"I'll always love you Sir Padfoot!" I said as melodramatically as possible reaching my arm out in the air toward Sirius as Alice continued to pull me away.

"And I you, Lady Greengrass!" He said in an equally melodramatic fashion.

"You two are absolutely ridiculous..." Alice tutted shaking her head at the two of us. "Come on, lets get you dressed in something fit for a _Lady_." She told me rolling her eyes with a smile while I grinned. I wasn't much for parties, but I had a feeling this one would be one I would never forget.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

I was sitting on one of the many vanity stools in the first year girls' dorm bathroom (against my will thanks to Alice's stupid sticking charm), as she began to get me all dolled up for her boyfriend's dog's party.

"Alice I don't really see why I have to— SWEET MERLIN! What are you doing here Moony?!" I exclaimed. If I hadn't been charmed to the seat, I would've jumped right out of it with surprise. _Why is Moony in my bathroom?! I'd expect this kind of behavior from James or Sirius, but_ Remus

"I needed someone with experience dealing with your hair." Alice explained with a unfazed shrug. "Lily's M.I.A., so Remus was the next best option. I had to levitate him to get him up those damn steps."

"I know where Lily is..." I said with a sneaky smile.

"Lovely. Now let's get to work, I told James I would have you ready by 8pm and it's already..." she trailed off looking down at her watch.

"Good Godric Alice! It's only 4:30pm! What all are you planning to accomplish?!" I said incredulously. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little frightened of whatever her answer would be.

"Well there's your hair, your nails, and your make up of course, oh and your outfit, and then some extra-time for emergencies and such."

I rolled my eyes. "Is dinner on the schedule?" I asked. All I had eaten that day was bacon, some Pepper Imps, and the hindquarters of one of Sirius's Peppermint Toads.

"Oh! I knew I forgot something!" Alice said, snapping her fingers frustratedly.

"I'll just get Tipsy," (AKA THE SWEETEST HOUSE ELF AT HOGWARTS) "-to bring something up for her. She _loves_ ' _Lady Greengrass'_!" Remus said with a smirk.

"Why are you smirking!? Tipsy is wonderful!" I grumbled crossing my arms over my chest.

"I never said she wasn't!" He said putting his hands up defensively. "Now, Alice I really don't know how much help I'm going to be with all this! I only know how to do her hair, and that's only because... uh.." Remus trailed off unsurely, "well ... um.. err... well you know why Snugs..." he mumbled awkwardly.

Yes, I did know. I also knew why Remmy was feeling so awkward. He always got like that when he accidentally mentioned my mum in conversations.

You see, Remus came over to my house, along with Lily, the summer before my second year when my mum first got sick with Dragon Pox. She knew there was a chance she wouldn't make it.. and since I inherited her unruly curly hair, she made a point to teach my friends how to manage it (despite my protests). She sat with Lily and Remus and explained all sorts of tips and tricks to make it not look like a crazy lions mane. She knew at some point I would want to look nice, and that without a mother there to teach me, I would need someone to help.

She had tried to teach _me_ initially, but I refused to let her. I refused to believe she could ever really pass away and leave me. I always thought she would pull through and help me figure out all the girly stuff when I got older. But she didn't, so it makes me all the more thankful that I have sweet friends like Lily and Remus.

Alice waved her hand dismissively at the teenage werewolf (not that she knew he was one) as she started to rummage through a drawer for the right shade of whatever she was about to paint my nails. "I just need you to keep her entertained. I _cannot_ deal with her whinging the whole time."

"You make me sound like a naughty toddler." I said in offense. _I know I'm a bit on the dramatic side, but come on! I'm not_ that _bad!_

Remus tried to hide a laugh with a cough whilst I sulked. "So... Ellie... did you figure out how to Charm the.. erm... _things_ for the prank?" Remus asked. The _things_ he was referring to were... well I actually can't tell you that just yet... it would ruin the surprise! But, I can say it was a gift of sorts for our lovely peers.

"I'm just about finished. I've been having a tough time getting them to stop raining... but I think I just need to tweak the spell a little to adjust for size." I told him.

He nodded thoughtfully. "I guess Sirius and James are handling the erm... uh... _music_? Right?" He asked. Alice wasn't suppose to technically know about all this, so we really had to choose our words carefully.

"Yeah, they are. But, you may want to make sure Sirius doesn't get too carried away with that part." I laughed.

"What about the outfits?" He asked.

"Oh I may need some help with that... I don't know what size pants Filch wears..." I told him.

"Why not just make it self sizing?" Alice recommended. I was shocked. _What all does she know..._

"Alice. What are you talking about?" I asked carefully.

"Well it's obvious you are going to try to charm Mr. Filch into some ridiculous outfit..." she said casually, turning away from the make up she had laid out so orderly upon the vanity. "...and it would make a lot more sense if you just charmed the outfit to adjust to his size. It doesn't really work all that well for more practical outfits, but it might be just the thing for a ... practical joke." She said smiling to herself.

"Alice. I love you." I said in all sincerity, my face in awe of her surprisingly conniving brain.

"I know." She said with a smirk. "But, I expect immunity from whatever prank you are plotting." She said, brandishing a torture device (I later found out was an eyelash curler) dangerously near my face. I nodded fearfully.

Two (long) hours later, my nails were painted, my hair was done, Tipsy had brought up my dinner, and Alice's patience was running thin. I insisted on waiting for Lily to return to do my make-up, Alice was a little offended, but I could tell she was kind of relieved she wouldn't have to do it. We focused on figuring out my outfit until Lily came back... from her _date_... heh heh heh.

"EL, DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO READ THAT ISN'T PRANK RELATED?" I heard Remus call from the dorm. He was laying on my bed, waiting for me to get dressed in the bathroom.

"LOOK IN THE TRUNK MOONS!" I called back. "Alice, why can't I just wear the shirt I have on?" I asked my best friend earnestly.

"That shirt has three stains on it Elizabeth." She deadpanned handing me a rather small crop top.

"ALL YOU HAVE IN HERE ARE QUIDDITCH MAGAZINES AND DAILY PROPHET PAPERS WITH CURLY MUSTACHES DRAWN ON ALL THE FACES!" Remus yelled through the closed door.

"LOOK UNDER THE UGLY SWEATER FROM MY AUNT GERDY!" I said, while struggling to try on the crop top Alice had made me squeeze into.

"OHHH!! FOUND THEM!" He called. _Finally_. "SNUGS! HALF OF THESE ARE ABOUT CATS!" He said in disbelief.

"YES! I LIKE CATS!"

"I heard Sirius got a cat," Alice commented, trying to decide between two pairs of pants to dress me up in next. "And that he named it _Elephant_." She snorted a laugh.

"SNUGS! LILY'S BACK!"

"Remus, you don't have to yell!" I heard Lily scold.

"OKAY!" I called, quickly pulling on and zipping up the stupid pants Alice shoved in my face.

I walked out into the dorm wearing a crop top I felt rather self-conscious in, paired with some bellbottom blue jeans that accentuated curves I wasn't aware I possessed.

"Oh! You look amazing Ellie!" Lily gushed rushing to my side.

"I was torn between that shirt and this one," Alice said to Lily, holding up a very cute Beatles shirt I had not seen before.

"That one!" I said pointing to the other shirt, grabbing it out of her hands. "Close your eyes Moony." I told Remus, who quickly obeyed, so that I could change right then and there. I tucked in the shirt and looked in the mirror. It was perfect. "You can look now."

"Hot." Lily stated matter-of-factly with a nod of approval. "Remus, can you go check and make sure the other boys aren't getting drunk?" Lily asked.

"Sure thing!" He said, leaving the room, all too eager to get away.

"I'm going to say hi to Frank, I'll see you two at the party!" Alice said leaving the room with a smile.

"C'mon, Ellie, let's do your make up now." Lily said, pulling me toward the bathroom once again.

"May I ask why everyone is so dedicated to getting me all dressed up tonight?" I asked as we sat down on the two stools in front of her vanity.

"Did no one tell you what the party was for?" She paused to ask.

"Um, Sirius said it was for Frank's dog having puppies or whatever." I said. The face she was making made me think this was not the right answer. She began to brush some pretty stuff on my eyelid.

"Is _that_ was Sirius told you? Oh Merlin." She said shaking her head and rolling her bright green eyes.

"Wait. Is that not what the party is for?" I asked, confused.

"Nope, I can't tell you anything else, now close your other eye." She said. I obliged, but only because she could poke my eye out if I bugged her about it too much.

"So Lils, did you have a nice _date?"_ I asked smirking when she moved on to something that didn't involve her almost poking my eye out

Lily laughed much harder than I expected her to. Actually, I hadn't expected her to laugh at all, I figured she would get all red faced and angry with me like usually does when I talk about her liking James.

"Did I say something funny?" I asked.

"It was NOT a date!" She said with another laugh. Okay, now Sirius had apparently lied to me about two things. I hope he can doggy paddle because he was in dangerous waters.

"But Sirius said that James said it was!" I exclaimed animatedly.

"Of course James would say that.." she scoffed. "I was just helping him grab some last minute decorations for the party." She said easily, moving on to some other make-upy thing.

"But you went _willingly_? With _James_? _Just_ James?" I asked with a knowing look.

"W-Well yes... but it-it wasn't a date! We didn't even go get butterbeer or anything!" She exclaimed defensively.

I shrugged with a smirk. "It could still be considered a date."

"No. He.. It... oh Merlin I accidentally went on a date with Potter, didn't I?" She said looking dejectedly across the room, slumping in her seat.

"I'm afraid you may have, Lily pad." I told her with a sympathetic smile.

"But he acted so normal! He didn't do all the annoying stuff he normally does!" She tried to reason while putting on my mascara. I had to choose my words carefully, I was in a vulnerable position once again.

"He only acts annoying to get your attention," I informed her. "He obviously had _that_ since you agreed to go with him alone... so, he was probably just being himself." I told her.

"Well if he acted like that all the time I wouldn't be so annoyed with him!" She said annoyed.

"Are you saying you liked the date?" I said with a sly smile.

"You tell anyone you die. Do you understand me Elizabeth Ann?" She said staring daggers into me. It was terrifying, I nodded. _She totally likes him._

 _Finally_ , at 8pm, Lily had finished my make up and I was ready for whatever the heck it was that we were celebrating.

"Okay, can I go down now?" I asked Lily.

"NO!" She pretty much yelled at my face. "I have to go grab something from Remus. You. stay. here." She said intensely.

I grumbled, but stayed. She returned not 5 minutes later with Moony's camera. _Of course._

She cleaned up the dorm room with a flick of her wand (something I made a mental note to ask her to teach me later), and told me to stand near the center of the room. "Okay, yep, perfect." She said adjusting the camera to float and take the picture for us. There was a bright flash and a loud clunking sound from the door at the same time.

The picture caught our expressions as we stared at James Potter... well a stag technically... standing at the door way.

"Oh deer. I knew he was going stag to the party, but I didn't think he meant it quite so literally." I said with a chuckle as Lily fumed.

This was going to be a _wild_ party... that was for sure.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"UUUUGGGGHHHHHH POTTER! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING SO INCREDIBLY AND UTTERLY _STUPID_! I TOLD YOU I WOULD BRING HER DOWN AFTER WE TOOK A PICTURE TOGETHER!!!" Lily bellowed, red faced and absolutely irate at the now human James standing guiltily in front of the door.

"Lily flow-"

"Oh don't you _'Lily Flower'_ me James!" She spat. At least she called him James, right? "Do you know what would happen if people saw you prancing up those steps as a deer?" That right there folks is a sentence I never thought I would hear Lily say... "Do you not care about potentially going to _Azkaban_!?!? And all for what?! So that you could ruin our picture!?!" She berated the boy who was madly in love with her.

"I'm sorry Lils... I was just excited..." he said softly, head low, hazel eyes looking at her from behind his dark lashes like a kicked puppy. _Lily how can you resist that face?!_

"You need to be more careful." She huffed, noticeably melting from his charms. "I guess since your here now, we'll head down."

"Can we please slide?" I begged her and James. The staircase leading to the girls dorm, in case you didn't know, was charmed to turn into a slide whenever a boy tried to walk up them. This is why Sirius couldn't carry me up to my room when I fell asleep, why Remus had to be levitated in by Alice when she needed him to help get me ready, and why James had to transform into a damn deer in order to get up to me and his precious Lily Pad. It wasn't often that I had the opportunity to utilize this decidedly more exciting way of traveling downstairs, so I was fully planning to capitalize on it. Lily merely rolled her eyes and gestured for us to go out onto the stairs.

James put a foot on the steps, instantly turning them into a slide. "I feel so used." He said melodramatically before sliding down to the common room, with the two of us following shortly behind.

I stood up with a wide smile on my face, my hair falling down my back in smooth golden waves. I looked down to make sure my Beatles shirt was still tucked into my bell bottoms and tried to gain my balance as I walked forward on the heels Alice had forced me into wearing. _It's surprising how different the common room looks when you were only a few inches taller. Wait. No. The common room definitely looks different_.

I looked around to see that the entire common room had been transformed. It was like I had died and gone to bohemian heaven. There were great billowing sheets with all different patterns charmed to make it look like we were in some sort of large cozy tent like structure. There were fairy lights strung up all across, with lanterns hanging low, casting sparkling and glittering light down upon the dimly lit room. In the corner there was a table with a large cake and various drinks, and Led Zeppelin was playing rather loudly from an enchanted record player someplace near where the dance floor space had been cleared.

I looked in awe. If I could have planned my dream party. This is what it would have looked like. Frank's dog was one lucky b-

"ELLIE!" squealed Mary, engulfing me in a large hug.

"Ooomf... hi Mary." I said through her dark hair. Then, just as soon as she arrived, she disappeared, running into the crowd of people mingling and dancing with drink cups in hand.

Suddenly, I heard muffled shushing noises. Then the room went quiet. Next thing I know there was a very large banner that appeared above the cake that read, ' **HAPPY ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE, 16th BIRTHDAY ELLIE!'**

I laughed and looked up completely bemused as everyone began cheering and singing for _me_ I guess. I was pondering the fact that I had apparently smuggled in fire-whiskey for my own surprise party, and so distracted by all the hubbub around me, that I didn't even really take notice when Sirius crept up beside me grinning until he whispered into my ear. "It's nice isn't it."

"I— it's— everything — PERFECT—but— it's not my birthday until—"

"Until January 2nd. Yes I know." He said with a chuckle. "But I wanted you to have a good birthday while everyone was still here, especially since you made mine the absolute best." He said sincerely. I smiled remembering that was the day I asked him to be my boyfriend.

"Y-you did _all of this?!"_ I asked incredulously. No wonder he had been slacking on Prankmas!

"Mmhmmm." He hummed with a satisfied smile. "C'mon let's go get you some fire whiskey, birthday girl!" He said dragging me to the drinks table.

Sometime later, once the drinks had kicked in, and the music had been turned up much too loudly, I found myself being dragged onto the dance floor by Lily as Bohemian Rhapsody began to blare through the room. We began dramatically singing along, with wild ridiculous dance moves to match. I laughed so hard that tears streamed down my face when I saw a rather tipsy Remus with his arms over James and Sirius as he sang along, equally dramatically, only to break out into a full on air guitar solo.

"Aren't you two supposed to be prefects or something?" I asked lily, pointing between her and my air-guitarist best werewolfy friend.

"Shhhhh!!! Don't tell anyone!" She slurred as I giggled.

"Excuse me Ellie, would you mind if I borrowed miss Evans for a dance?" James asked in a very posh voice with a smirk.

"I wouldn't mind, but she might." I told him smirking. He frowned for a moment, then smiled when Lily took him by the hand leading him to the center of the dance floor.

"It's just one dance." She shrugged to me, a small smile creeping up on her lips. _Yep. She totally likes him._

I was sipping away on my fire-whisky and coke in the corner of the room, smiling as I watched the scene before me. Everyone was either dancing, or laughing, or talking with smiles upon their faces. I scanned the room looking for Sirius, who I had the sudden urge to give a big ol' hug, when my line of sight was obstructed by a rather handsome blonde haired boy.

"Hey Elizabeth. This is a nice party." He purred walking closer to me.

"Um yeah," I said with an awkward chuckle, trying to scoot away. This guy was getting way too close for comfort. This guy also happened to be Noah Bletchley, not that I really registered that fact in the moment.

"You know, it's a shame your boyfriend isn't spending it with you..." he said. "If It were me, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you."

At this point I was creeped out.

"Um.. Thanks, I think... but I um.. said I would meet up with him after the next song, so I should really go... " I lied, trying to get away. He blocked my way, backing me into the wall, standing in front of me, arms on either side keeping me from escaping.

"You're lying." He sang, with a terrifying glint in his eyes. "Everyone knows how you are Elizabeth..." he said moving closer.

"Excuse me?" I asked. _What was he trying to imply? And what on earth made him think this was an okay thing to do right now?_

"Everyone knows how you get around with those three. Why else would those Marauders let you tag along?"

 _Oh hell no._

"GET AROUND? TAG ALONG?" I yelled in his face. _I am not a 'tag along'! I am a fully fledged marauder member! I signed a contract dammit!_ He moved back a fraction in surprise. I took this opportunity to pull out my wand and casted a bat Bogey hex so violent that he fell onto the floor by the force. I then moved away with the intention of leaving him there to deal with his boogery bats on his own. Sirius however, was marching toward me and Mr. Bat Bogey Bletchley with anger flaming in his grey eyes.

"Ellie are you okay?! Did he hurt you?" He asked quickly, frantically scanning me up and down to check that I hadn't broken a leg or something.

"I'm fine Pads... just creeped out. Can we please just get him out of here?" I asked, trying to move further away.

"Sure thing love. But I have one matter of business to attend to first." Sirius said before moving over to Noah. He lifted the hex, pulled him up by the collar, and slammed him into the wall, pinning him there by his shirt with his wand pointed at his face. "Let's get somethings straight, alright mate? You will not touch or speak to or about Ellie from this point forward. If I find out that you have been running your mouth with those rumors again, I will not hesitate to make your life a living hell." He said seething, fists clenched. "And if I _ever_ find out that you have hurt her, or any other girl in any way, I just want you to know that I'm perfectly fine with going to Azkaban if it means you will never hurt anyone else again. Do you understand?" He asked in a low and dangerous voice. Noah just stared at him too frighten to speak. Sirius shoved him into the wall again. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" He asked again, ferociously. Noah nodded. Sirius then had him escorted out by a few members of the Quidditch team who had come over to check that everything was okay.

"Ellie. Are you sure you're okay?" Sirius asked worriedly, pulling me into an embrace, stroking my hair.

"I-I'm fine... what were you talking about with the rumors?" I asked pulling away with wide eyes.

Sirius sighed, "Noah started some stupid rumor when he saw those pictures of us snuggling or whatever..." he said hesitantly.

"What did he say?" I asked, my blue eyes boring into his own grey eyes.

"He— he um... he said that uh..." Sirius took a deep breath. "He said you were ... _sleeping around_ with me, James, and Remus." He said quickly. _WHAT?!_

"But I've never even— Wait! That's what Benny was talking about wasn't it?! WASN'T IT?!" I screeched, completely pissed off and slightly drunk. Sirius nodded. "I'm going to punch him so hard he'll forget he's a wizard, I swear!" I shrieked, trying to march toward the portrait hole that Mr. Noah Bletchley had just been hauled out of.

Sirius grabbed me, spinning me around to face him before I could make it very far. "El. No. As much as I would truly love to see that, no." He said firmly, but with gentle eyes.

"But Paddy! He's a jerk! He deserves it!" I whined, trying in vain to tug out of his firm grip.

"I know he does love, but-"

"It's my party, I can punch someone in the nose if I want to!" I said fiercely.. though I'm pretty sure I just sounded like an angry toddler... maybe Alice was on to something...

Sirius laughed slightly at my 'fierceness', leading me to smile. _Damn your stupid infectious laughter Padfoot!_ "C'mon, let's just go enjoy your party okay?" He said. He then led me through the crowded room, guiding me with his hand on the small of my back, to where all our friends were. "I didn't get a chance to tell you this earlier, but you look absolutely beautiful." He whispered in my ear, sending chills up my spine as I felt his breath along my neck.

I turned to face him, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him close so that my own lips were next to his ear. "I didn't get a chance to say thank you." I whispered. He pulled back with eyes tracing my face, and a silly smile on his pouty lips.

"I love you Elizabeth. I know I already told you that, and I joke around about you being my 'one true love' and all, but it's 100% true. I love you so much. You are the weirdest, funniest, smartest, strongest, and most beautiful person I know... and I live with James Potter." He laughed. "And I just never want to go through life without you as a apart of it." He said placing a kiss on the top of my head as I blushed red as Lily Evans's hair.

"You're so good at all that sappy stuff." I said hiding my head in his shoulder and he chuckled. He knew I wasn't good at all the lovey dovey sweet talk. "but I love you too, so much Sirius." I said looking up into his eyes. "You're the best boyfriend I've ever had!" I said with a grin.

He laughed throwing his head back. "I'm the only boyfriend you've ever had!"

"Yes, and I could have just as easily said you were the worst.." I said smugly with a smirk as he started to pepper my face with kisses. "Stahp you clingy mutt!" I giggled. He did and looked at me with those damn puppy dog eyes. I kissed him on the nose, then pulled away from him, dragging him to come dance with me.

Later that night, as the music began to get slower, and the people began to get sleepier, I found myself snuggled in a squishy armchair, fighting to keep my eyes open.

"Snugs? Snugs!" Sirius exclaimed upon spotting me. I had a habit of running away at parties. "Ellie, you should probably go to bed." He told me, trying to pull me up off the couch.

"No."

"Yes." He said hoisting me up over his shoulder.

"Sirius! Put me down!"

"No." He said smugly as he trotted up to the dorm staircases. "Where do you want to go El? To you're dorm or mine? El?"

I had fallen asleep.

"Ellie!!"

"Hmm what?" I asked.. I think. Hard to remember. I must have actually fallen asleep at this point because my next memory was of being gently placed onto Sirius's bed.

"I need a T-Shirt." I said with my eyes half closed as I sat up. I looked down at my outfit. "Um well a bigger t-shirt..." I yawned. I realized I didn't know where Sirius went and looked around the room confused. My eyes stopped on Sirius looking through his trunk... shirtless. "You're so handsome." I said smiling. "So sweet and so handsome."

"Thank you," he smirked. I didn't miss that his ears turned a little red. "Here we go," he said handing me his old Quidditch shirt. It was old and soft, about 3 sizes too big, and smelled like him, so basically it was perfect.

I trotted, stumbling slightly, to the bathroom and shut the door to get changed. While Sirius and I were unmistakably in love, and dating, I was not at a point where I was okay with him seeing me erm.. exposed... not even in my drunken and sleepy state.

I walked out in his large shirt that came down to just above my knee, leaving my party outfit in a ball on the floor, and made my way toward his beautiful comfortable bed when two firm hands stopped me on my way.

"Nope. You are going to wash your face and brush your teeth or morning Ellie will be angry... at both of us."

"Night time Ellie is angry right now." I muttered. "Let me sleeeeeep!!!" I said struggling to get loose from his grip.

"No can do love. Now, c'mon!" He said dragging me back to the bathroom. I begrudgingly brushed my teeth, glaring at Sirius the whole time, and washed all the make-up off my face. I hated to admit it, but I felt so much better afterwords.

"Okay. Now you can sleep." Sirius said with a smile. I was so happy I swooped up and surprised him with a kiss on the cheek then made my way to the bed. Sirius began to get the spare blanket and pillow out to sleep on the floor...

"What are you doing?" I asked as I watched him build the pallet I had seen him do countless times.

"Um.. trying to go to sleep?" He tried. "El, you had a lot to drink and I don't know if it's a good idea.."

"I want to snuggle. Come here please." I said, ignoring his protests.

"Ellie.. I really don't think that's a.." he trailed off as I gave him the puppy dog eyes. His weakness. "Fine... you win.. scoot over." He said.

That night I fell asleep on Sirius's chest, wrapped up in the arms of the boy I loved.

The next morning I woke up with the world's worst headache and a snoring boy drooling on my hair.

 _How romantic._


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

The next morning, after I had shoved away the drooling mutt, he handed me a lovely hangover potion for my headache (which Sirius seemed to anticipate that I would need as he placed it on the night stand the night before). As I chugged the potion, which happened to taste like burning rubber and bad decisions, I realized that Sirius was not wearing a shirt. _Oh Merlin._

I was not complaining, however I was confused. "Sirius, don't you usually wear a shirt to sleep?"

"I usually do." He said with his croaky morning voice I found _adorable_.

"Then why aren't you wearing one now?"

He shrugged. "I was hot." _Yes. Yes he so was._

"Lies!" Said a voice from somewhere to the left of the room. I looked over to see James Potter, laying the wrong way on his bed... with a red lipstick mark on his cheek the exact same color as what Lily was wearing last night. I was so incredibly tempted to squeal about this observation, but knew I had to rein it in if he was going to tell me what the heck was was talking about.

"Lies?" I repeat.

"You told him to take off his shirt so you could, quote 'see his stupid sexy abs.'" Remus informed from his own bed, causing me to blush slightly. He was still wearing his shoes and he had a lipstick mark of his own on his cheek that was _not_ the color Lily was wearing. Actually he had a couple. _Oooo Lady's man Moony! Making them gals swoon with his air guitar skills!_ "It was kind of annoying." He continued. _Ugh. You're kind of annoying._

"Yeah, but mostly because Pads kept saying no to you." James told me. "You two bickered about it for a solid 10 minutes. I was about to just rip the shirt off of him myself just to get you both to shut up."

"Then how—"

"Puppy dog eyes." James and Remus said in unison.

Oh. Yep. That makes sense.

"But then you tried to make out with him." Remus told me. I blushed bright red this time. I'm okay with PDA and all, but I'd prefer not to have a make out session with Sirius in front of James and Remus. It's just kinda weird.

"I don't remember that." I mumbled.

James spoke next. "Yeah, that's what Sirius told you when he tried to stop you, that 'you wouldn't remember'. But you said 'I will too you sexy idiot!'" He said doing a pretty accurate impression of me, right down to the flailing arms and mild pout.

Sounds like something I would say.

"I finally just told you that if you didn't stop I was going to sleep on the floor and tell all the House elves to stop making bacon in the mornings." Sirius said smirking while he got up to hand the hangover Potions to the other two Marauders.

"That's so low! How could you say that to tipsy Ellie!" I exclaimed grumpily. You don't mess with my bacon.

That sexy idiot only shrugged, still smirking. Stupid cheeky mutt.

"Okay... well now that that's all cleared up, can you two please explain the lovely shades of lipstick you are wearing?" I asked pointing to James with one hand and Remus with he other.

"MERLINS PANTS!" James screamed, jumping out of bed, grabbing his glasses, and sprinting to the mirror. "I THOUGHT THAT WAS A DREAM! LILY REALLY KISSED ME!"

James looked like he might legitimately pass out from happiness, but that may have been because he got up too quickly... but my money's still on it being because of Lily.

"On the cheek." Sirius explained.

"DOESN'T MATTER! HER PERFECT LIPS WERE ON MY FACE!" James screamed jumping up in down for dramatic effect.

Someone cleared their throat from the door way. "Uh.. um... Sirius do you have anymore of that stuff..." said a girl's voice.

James fainted.

"Oh Merlin. Lily, look what you did!" I said exasperatedly to the red head standing in the doorway, pointing to the gangly figure now unconscious atop his bed.

"Is that—? Oh no." Lily shuddered as she realized it was her lipstick on James Potters face. "Oh no no no..."

Sirius chuckled and handed her the hangover potion. "You don't remember do you?"

"No." She replied looking away from him, blushing like mad. "But I do remember what happed to Mr Casanova over there." She laughed.

"Please share!" I cheered.

She chuckled as Remus threw a shoe at me. Rude.

"Well Mr. Lupin charmed the socks off of Mary McDonald last night." She began. MARY?! I thought she fancied Snivellus!

"Mary?! Mary kissed Moony?!"

"No no no, he _literally_ charmed off her socks with some silly spell. She thought it was hilarious and went to go grab her friend... some Hufflepuff girl. Very pretty." She clarified. "I dunno her name... but they really seemed to hit things off..."she smirked looking at the lipstick all over his face.

"Who!? Who was it Moony?!"

"I'm not telling you. You'll go around saying we're soulmates or something like you do with those two." Remus said grouchily.

At this, I remembered James was still passed out... or at least I thought he was. I looked over to see him sitting on his bed quietly just staring at Lily like a lovesick puppy... a lot like how Sirius looks at me when he's playing with my hair.

"I promise I won't proclaim the girl to be your soulmate, but you have to tell me Moons! I'm your best friend! Also, I'm a girl! I could help!"

"Nope. Not telling." He said stubbornly. I would figure it out eventually.

"Well... um thanks for the potion Sirius.. I'll see you guys later." Lily said before moving to leave the room. She stopped along the way to shyly spare a look at James, and then blushed bright red and ran out the room. _Soulmates._

"So. Prankmas planning!? Yes? Yes." I said.

"We have seven essays to do by Tuesday Snugs." Remus reminded me. I expected James to be on my side, but he didn't say anything, he was still recovering from being in the presence of the future Mrs. Lily Potter.

Sirius groaned. "Can't you do them for us Moony?" He tried. Moony just gave him a 'are you really asking that question you lazy mutt' kind of look. Sirius sighed deeply then dramatically flopped himself onto the bed I was still occupying. "Fine. We'll do _homework_.." He said the word homework like it was a dirty word. He wasn't wrong.

After this, I quickly snuck back up to the girls dorm to get ready, still wearing Sirius's big t-shirt, and hoping no one saw me. Now usually, I never really worried about people knowing I'd slept in the boys dorm. However, I was feeling particularly self conscious about it this specific morning since I'd learned the night before that there were rumors going around that I was shagging all the Marauders. Truth was, I wasn't shagging any of them.

I snuck into the girls dorm and saw Lily's bed was empty (I figured she was in the bathroom), Alice snoring quite loudly in one of Franks Quidditch shirts, Mary sleeping soundly all snuggled up with a tea cup next to her bed, and Marlene glaring at me. I just ignored her. She didn't seem to like that.

"Nice of you to join us Greengrass." She spat. _Ooo we're using last names, she must really be upset._

"Good to be here Marls." I said dismissively, looking through my closet for this comfy dress Lily gave me. It was my favorite. Mostly because it had pockets.

Marlene scoffed. I turned around, intending to ignore the huffy girl still wearing last nights makeup and just get dressed in peace. Marlene, however, had other plans. "Why did you have your goons kick out my date!?"

Her date? I didn't even know she had a date.

"I don't know what you're talking about Marls." I said rolling my eyes.

"You were there!" She said pointing at me, scowling at me intently. "I saw you talking to him, and then you're stupid boyfriend—"

"Sirius is not stupid!"

"— shoved him against a wall and then threw him out!"

 _Oh boy._

"You're date was Noah?! Noah Bletchley!? That git?!"

"YES! AND YOU KICKED HIM OUT!" She yelled. I noticed she didn't deny that he was a git. I also wondered how Alice and Mary weren't awake by this point.

"Sirius is the one who kicked him out! And you know what? I'm glad he did!"

"You just can't stand to let anyone else have the spotlight, can you?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about Marls."

"I finally get Noah, the hottest guy at school, to be my date—" _Wrong. Sirius is the hottest._ "—and you have to drag him out of the party just so that you and you're ' _oh so stupid handsome boyfriend'_ can have all the attention! It's not fair!"

What the hell? Is that really what she thought of me? I'd hate me too if I were her.

"Marls. The reason Sirius kicked him out was because he tried to assault me." I said calmly. I was a terrible liar, she had to know I was telling the truth.

"No. He wouldn't do that. He's a nice guy." She said stubbornly.

"He is NOT a nice guy! He's a total git! He's been spreading around some rumor that I've been shagging all my best guy friends and making everyone, including my own brother, think I'm some attention seeking floozy!!" I was getting really worked up at this point. "Nice guys don't do that Marls."

Marlene scowled at me but didn't say anything. I have a strong inkling she believed the rumors. I left her there to be angry by herself and got ready. She was gone by time I came out of the bathroom.

That afternoon us Marauders hunkered down in the common room to knock out our assignments. I honestly only agreed because James promised me we would work on Prankmas later if we got everything done.

"I don't care about Divination. I want to be a healer, not a bloody fortune teller!!" I huffed, violently flopping my ridiculous dream journal on the table.

"You really want to be a healer?" Remus questioned. I nodded, giving that damn journal my best 'Marlene Glare'. "I didn't know you were serious about that." He looked pleasantly surprised.

James looked at me proudly. "You'll be a great healer, Snugs."

"He's right. And luckily, you'll have lots of practice from patching us up all the time!" Sirius said winking, but looking proud as well.

I finally moved on from the nonsense that was Divination after I scribbled down a weird dream I had the other day where I was punching Walburga Black in the nose (Sirius thought this was hilarious). Unfortunately, my next essay was for Herbology.

"I hate Herbology." I grumbled, as I flipped through the book looking for the chapter on Fanged Geraniums.

"El, you know you need to get at least an Exceeds Expectations on your Herbology O.W.L. to be a healer right?"

"Yes I know that Dad." I snapped at Remus mockingly.

"How is ol' Wally?" Sirius asked, changing the subject. I suddenly remembered I had somehow forgotten to mention to my dad that me and Sirius were dating in my last few letters to him. Actually. That's a lie. I had been purposefully putting it off.

"Oh he's good. He said you need to write him more and that he misses you."

"But I already write to him once a week!" Sirius said rather indignantly. This was new information to me... I don't even write my dad that often!

"You talk to my dad once a week? What the bloody hell do you two chat about?"

"Oh you know, he just likes to keep in touch with me... keep up with my news... check if I'm happy... see what silly thing you've done lately. He was so excited about the party, I swear I wouldn't have been surprised if he showed up last night." Sirius laughed.

"Hang on. He knew about the party? Did you tell him we were dating?!"

"Well duh." He said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ughhhh!" I tried to slam my head on the table, but Sirius stuck his hand out just in time to soften the landing.

"El? Is something wrong?" Sirius asked being all sweet and crap.

"I hadn't told my dad we were dating yet." I mumbled.

"Oh... why not?" He sounded kind of hurt. Oh no.

"I just— I didn't—" I took a deep breath. "I didn't want him to turn into some crazy protective dad and ruin you twos bromance." I told him honestly.

He laughed. Loudly. Obnoxiously. I rolled my eyes. I guess I should have known nothing would come between Sirius and Wally, not even little ol' me.

It was late in the afternoon when we had finally finished five out of the seven essays we had to finish. Even Remus was sick of doing homework at this point. We packed up and moved our little party up to the boys dorm so we could work on Prankmas (yay!).

"Hey Frank!" I cheerfully greeted the boy's illusive fourth roommate.

"Hey Ellie! Did you all hear that Lacy moved the Quidditch practice to tomorrow night instead of in the morning?"

"Did she really?! Perfect." I said. The little mischievous cogs began turning in my brain. Just think of all the extra planning we could do now that we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn

"Yep! I'm going to go let the others know and then help Alice with her Charms homework. Have fun plotting whatever prank you all are up to this week!" He said happily, leaving the room with a wave. Frank was such a nice guy, it made me happy that he was with Alice.

"Okay! So I have a really good idea for our opening act... but first, do any of you know how to charm fireworks?" I asked.

I could see the mischievous twinkle in all of their eyes, even crabby Prefect Lupin.

Have I mentioned just how fricken excited I was about Prankmas? It was going to be EPIC.


	17. Chapter 17

_Twas the night before prankmas, and all through the school, not a creature was stirring, not even a ghoul; the prank was being set by the Marauders with care, with hopes that Filch could never prove they were there. Students and professors were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Fizzing Whizbees danced in their heads._

* * *

Twas the night before Prankmas, arguably our most ambitious prank during our time at school, and we were all doing some last minute preparations. The plan had been in motion since earlier that day when we slipped a sleeping draught in Filch's nighttime tea and bribed Peeves to make a distraction far away from where we were setting things up by telling him we would let him get us back the next term.

I was in charge of setting up things in the great hall, and James and Sirius were off in various parts of the castle prepping for the other bit of the prank... though, we were a little wary of letting those two wander off on their own. Remus was our lookout and was in charge of the map. He had one of James and Sirius's two way mirrors (that they always used in detention) to let them know when someone was coming while he kept me company. He also made notes on what all rules we would be breaking.

"Hey Ellie, did you ever figure out anything else about your brother?" he asked as I got to work charming a Christmas tree.

"Not really, I just know that things started going downhill once he became friends with that seventh year, Kenna Selwyn. Not sure what her deal is..."

"Have you tried asking Regulus about her?"

Regulus... I actually hadn't thought of that. "You know that's not a bad idea Moony."

We continued in comfortable silence for a while. It was one of the things I liked about Remus, that we could just be content and enjoy each other's presence without having to force a conversation all the time.

But, being me, I had to break the silence and ask a question that would no doubt annoy him and/or cause him to get all flustered.

"Sooooo... you wanna tell me about the girl?" I asked for the billionth time that week with an innocent smile. So far, all I knew was that she was a very pretty hufflepuff with exceptionally good taste in men.

"Not really," he said scanning the map, not even bothering to look up at me.

"Oh come on Remus! I'm dying here! At least give me a hint!"

"Nope."

"MOONY PLEASE!" I begged. I was on my knees, hands clasped together, big blue puppy dog eyes looking up at him.

He looked up from the map and half smiled. "Okay. I'll humor you... She has brown hair."

 _What?! SHE HAS BROWN HAIR! I can work with this!_

I momentarily took a break from charming the festive foliage to express my excitement to my werewolf friend by howling in delight.

"Ahhhhh!"

"Contain yourself Greengrass!" He chided.

"I can't! I just can't! Please tell me you asked her out!"

He didn't answer...

"Remus... you did ask her out right?"

"I mean... what if-if she doesn't like me.."

"Remus! She made out with you! OF COURSE SHE LIKES YOU! Besides you're AMAZING! You're funny and smart and sweet... when you want to be... and if she can't see that she's an absolute idiot and not worth your time." I told him passionately. "Rem... are-are you blushing?"

 _He was. He so was! Awww!_

"No..." he said covering his face with the map.

 _(He was.)_

I went back to work on charming the crap out of the great hall and I decided to just let my sage words of advice marinade in that silly werewolf brain of his.

The prep work that night surprisingly went off without a hitch... well _kind of_. Once I was finished with all my mischief in the great hall, Remus and I went off to try to go round up the other two idiots.

We followed the map to the third floor corridor on the righthand side and came across a fairly peculiar sight.

Sirius and James were standing in front of a rather large congregation of charmed suits of armor. Remus and I stood just out of view down the hall watching the whole weird scene unfold.

"One two three... one two three... Yes! There you go Jeff!" James praised the suit of armor I suppose he had named Jeff.

"You have to really put your hips into it Wilberforce! You have to commit!" Sirius told another.

"Carl, you're getting the down-beat and up-beat switched." James told one in the back of the group.

"Good work Elvendork!" Sirius praised one on the left. _Did that oaf really just name one_ _after_ _Dorcas Meadows's cat? Hang on... Dorcas is very pretty... and a Hufflepuff... and she has brown hair—_

"OKAY! Now from the top!" James said clapping his hands together and moving to the front of the group. "Five, six, seven,—Oh hey Snugs!" James waved to me. _Dang it. We've been spotted._

"You two had one job, and teaching this lot how to dance was not apart of it!" I said loudly as Remus and I walked to meet them down the corridor. I didn't even care if we got caught.

"Oh we know, but this is going to be awesome! Once they get it down they can come in at the end! We thought it would give the grand finale some extra _oomf_." The messy haired boy explained, scooting his glasses up his face. He was smiling so wide I would have thought Lily Evans was around.

I suppose my face showed that I was unconvinced. "Here, just watch them El. You'll see." Sirius told me. He moved closer to whisper in my ear. "But try not to look at Wilberforce too closely... he's got two left feet."

"He's a suit of armor Sirius, my expectations aren't all that high."

"No. He literally has two left feet." I looked down, tilting my head to the side. Sure enough, he had two left metal shoes.

As much as it truly wounded me to admit it, James was right. The troupe of dancing armor men were awesome and were exactly what we needed.

"Alright, so I think that about sums up our prepping. Everyone knows what they need to do tomorrow.. and if we forget for some reason I'm sure Snugs will remind us.." James said ending with a smirk.

So, just like that we headed back to the dorms and I actually slept in my own bed, feeling absolutely giddy about the next day.

* * *

There we were, on the last full day of classes before Christmas holidays. All our fellow unsuspecting students and professors were gathered in the great hall for breakfast. They had no idea that 'Prankmas' was about to begin with a _BANG_.

My fellow Marauders and I were sitting at the Gryffindor table, trying to act casual as we looked around the hall with amusement and expectation of the chaos that would soon ensue. Suddenly, there was a great _BANG,_ as I mentioned before, that caused the whole hall to collectively gasp and watch with wide eyes and gaping mouthes as dozens of dazzling and enchanted fireworks erupted from each of the giant Christmas trees flanking the hall.

There were fireworks of all different shapes, sizes, and colors, illuminating the stunned citizens below. In addition to the traditional fireworks displays, there were also charmed fireworks that were decidedly non-traditional, yet immensely more festive in my opinion. These festive displays included a sparkling chorus line of dancing gingerbread men, a gigantic waddling snowman that chased unsuspecting victims (including professor Slughorn), as well as a whole flock of glistening firework reindeer that pranced around near the ceiling.

"three... two.. one..." whispered James expectantly, trying to hold in his elated anticipation, but failing spectacularly as he bounced with excitement, his gaze fixed towards the front of the hall where the teachers sat.

I flicked my wand subtly under the table and right on cue, each of the professors outfits had been transfigured into something exceedingly more festive than their usual drab ensembles.

Each of the heads of house were dressed in frilly green elf costumes, complete with bell topped hats and curly toed slippers. The rest of the teachers were each adorned to resemble one of 'Santa's Flying Reindeer' with stylish bits of mistletoe and baubles hanging from their antlers. However, the most grand transformation was none other than Headmaster Dumbledore. The grand old wizard was now dressed head to toe in a red Santa suit and matching hat (which happened to complement his long white beard and twinkling blue eyes quite wonderfully).

Now I must say, we had kind of expected the teachers to be at least a little upset, well mainly Minnie. But, to our surprise, both Minnie and Dumbles were laughing at the whole display. Seems they were really in the Christmas spirit! Although, it could have had something to do with the fact that Sirius also hit them with a cheering charm. The world shall never know...

After a while the fireworks slowly began to fizzle out and it seemed that the excitement was coming to an end... or so those silly naïve students thought. It was at this time that Moony looked over to the Slytherin table with a satisfied smirk, carefully eying his target. Next, with a discreet flick of his wand, lumps of coal replaced all the food along the entirety of the Syltherin table (and also Benny's plate at the Ravenclaw table heh heh). The poor unsuspecting Slytherins were too shocked and bemused to even notice the banners that appeared above them with the words 'NAUGHTY'. Thankfully, the rest of the houses did.

While the three other houses were busy laughing at the Slytherin table, Sirius took the opportunity to lean over and say in a whisper, "I really expected Filch to be here by now. I wonder what's..." His sentence was cut short by the arrival of a very angry, very green, and very hairy Mr. Filch bursting through the doors. He was fuming, out of breath, and being chased by Peeves who sang "Green and grinchy Mr. Filchy!" Over and over and over...

By this point, Dumbledore was having an _extremely_ difficult time trying to stifle a smile and chuckle.

As the students, and newly gussied up teachers, walked out of breakfast and on to their classes for the day, everyone assumed that this would be the end of the prank. But they soon discovered this was not the case. Prankmas was going to be an all day event.

As people passed through the halls, Sirius and James's handiwork was out on display. The enchanted suits of armor, who normally sang carols to passerby's during the holiday season, had been subtly tweaked to sing, arguably better lyrics in Sirius's opinion (for example: 'god rest ye merry gentlemen' had been changed to 'god rest ye merry hippogriffs'), and they added in some pretty groovy dance moves to boot.

Next, was one of my favorite parts. As everyone began to make their way into the great hall for lunch, they were greeted by vast amounts of snow, which a been charmed to not be too cold to the touch. Snow, that was the _perfect_ consistency for the epic snowball battle that would soon take place between the four houses. (Gryffindor totally won). In case you were wondering, yes. Yes I most certainly pelted Benjamin Stewart Greengrass with snowballs... even after he begged for mercy.

Now, by this point, no one had been able to really pin the whole thing on us (though Snivellus tried). Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, besides Snivelly and Benny that is, and by that evening nearly every one of the teachers still had on their costumes from earlier that day. Dumbledore sat smiling wide, still in his Santa suit, at the front of the hall with a pleasant look of expectation for the next stunt of the day.

The last 'prank' wasn't much of a prank at all, but it was my very favorite part. Staying true to the Christmas spirit, we decided to end with a gift of sorts. There were small boxes wrapped in the respective house colors (purple and green for the teachers) placed at each of the place settings. At first, everyone was a bit nervous to open the packages, rightfully so, but fortunately their curiosity eventually outweighed their better judgment. Inside each of the boxes was a snow globe with a miniature snowy version of hogwarts inside. We wanted to give the people something that would 1) give them a souvenir of sorts, 2) that would be practical, and 3) would give some credit to us masterminds.

What no one realized until later, was that the globes actually reflected the weather at the time. I'd had a really tough time getting that stupid charm to work, but eventually I managed to get them all to stop raining on random parts of the castle. At the base of the globes were the words:

 **HAPPY PRANKMAS!**

 **Love Always,**

 **The Marauders**

As everyone finished opening their gifts and had eaten their dinner, we conjured about a dozen disco balls high up in the rafters of the hall, casting shimmering lights down on the floor below. Music began to play from the enchanted record player we used for my party, and then the show stopping Armor Men marched to the front of the room. I don't know where James and Sirius learned how to dance, or how they managed to get those silly things to catch on so quickly, but they were truly amazing.

After their disco number was complete they were met by a deafening round of applause. What happened next was the one thing we hadn't planned for. Dumbledore vanished the wooden tables and benches and conjured a giant dance floor. Everyone dance, except for Benny and his sad lot, until the wee hours of the morning before heading back to their common rooms with their snow globes in hand.

Now, if you are wondering... yes. Yes we did get in some slight trouble. But it was received 2 weeks detention to be served that the beginning of next term, and had 35 points each deducted for 'disturbing the peace'. But, we also received 100 points each from the professors for the use of advanced magic and improving the school's general morale.

All in all, I think it was a success.

.

.

.

Also... I totally saw Remus kiss Dorcas on the dance floor when he thought no one was looking. _AHHHH!_


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

Christmas has always been a bittersweet time of year for me. I loved it because, well... it's Christmas, and Christmas is freaking awesome! But the holidays also tend to make me unusually sad because it was around this time three years ago that my mum passed away. It just hurt knowing that she wouldn't be there. But then again, I was absolutely ecstatic because I got to see my dad (or Wally, as Sirius so lovingly refers to him) and spend time at home with him, but even that made me sad because it would remind me how Sirius had to go back home with his evil parents.

You see my issue? Lots and lots of angsty emotions with bits of holiday cheer sprinkled in.

This year, all of our friend group decided to go home for the break, well James _technically_ wasn't going _home,_ he was going to Romania to visit some distant cousin of his that was a dragon trainer or dragon poo shoveler or something... Honestly, I'm not really sure. I kind of stopped paying attention when he told me because Sirius was changing into his Quidditch practice shirt. But I knew it definitely had to do with dragons and Romania.

Anyway, the train ride back was just the same as always. I hang out with the boys, we sneak around to prank Snivellus and Benny (we charmed goo in their shoes), James stalks Lily, Lily turns red and gets mad that James stalked Lily, we accidentally spot Alice and Frank making out, we run into Dorcas Meadows. Wait. No, that last one wasn't normal.

I hadn't said anything about spotting Remus and Dorcas the night before (which was physically killing me), deciding that it might be more fun to watch them try to be sneaky.

We Marauders were walking back to our compartment, well Remus, Sirius, and I were dragging James who was putting up quite a fight trying to get back to Lily, when we spotted a certain pretty Hufflepuff named Dorcas holding her black cat, trying to decide what sweet she wanted from the trolly lady.

She really was very pretty, she had naturally glossy brown hair I could only dream of possessing, big emerald green eyes, and a truly infectious smile that somehow had the ability to make you feel at ease, something I know Moony needed in his life.

"Hey Dorcas!" Sirius said waving to the brunette girl who held onto her cat a bit tighter. I'm fairly certain she never completely forgave him for turning her cat, Elvendork, into a multicolored poodle that one time. In Sirius's defense, he did turn it back into a cat afterwords... though its meows have sounded a bit bark-like ever since...

"Hey Sirius! Um... hi Remus," she said shyly blushing a bit and tucking her glossy brown hair behind her ear. I glanced up at my werewolf friend to see him looking at Dorcas like she was the most loviest thing he'd ever seen, then I violently elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ow.. oh! Uh hey Dory!" He said ruffling the back of his hair with a lopsided smile. It seems James's bad habits rub off on everyone. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate how stinking cute his nickname is for her! _I wonder what their ship name should be... Demus? Doony? Rorcas? Decisions decisions..._

I gave a smug smile looking between the two love struck teenagers.

"Um.. Sirius, James, I need you two to uh.. come help me with something." I say, trying and failing to act natural. "I uh.. lost Sirius's cat.."

"What about Rem— Ouch! EL! Sirius doesn't even— Ow! Would you please—ow! Stop stepping on my—"

"See you later Moons!" I say trying to cut off James before he says anything to make the situation more awkward. I swear he is the most oblivious person on the planet. I sincerely hope when he and Lily have kids that they inherit Lily's social awareness.

After willing my brain to stop imagining how cute their kids would be, I dragged Padfoot and Prongs to the compartment, leaving Remus alone with his pretty lady friend.

"Snugs! What the hell?! You almost broke my toe, and my rib back there! Why were you beating me up?!" James exclaimed. I was _not_ beating him up. If I was _actually_ beating him up, his nose would be broken in 3 places like the time he made a comment about it being my ' _time of the month_ ' last February. It was, which may or may not have contributed to the fact that he got beat up for his comment.

"James. Did you not see the way Remus was looking at Dorcas?" Sirius asked.

"Or the way 'Dory' was looking at him?! Those two are so smitten!" I squealed.

"Wait. Do you think she's the one who kissed him at the party?" Mr. Oblivious asked.

"Oh she definitely was..." I said cheekily.

"What do you know that you aren't telling us, Snugs?" Sirius asked moving closer. _Oh no._

"I-I can't tell you.."

"Oh yes you can.." James said smirking, moving closer as well. _Oh no no no._

"I can't..." I say weakly. I knew exactly what was coming next.

"Tell us—"

"Or we will make you tell us—" Sirius finished for James.

I shook my head, bracing myself.

"Well then you leave us with no other choice." Sirius said with an evil grin.

They then proceeded to mercilessly tickle me. Forget The Cruciatus Curse, if you wanted information out of me, this was the way to do it. Um... don't tell Voldy though, okay? "HAHAHAHA—REMUS MADE OUT WITH DORCAS LAST NIGHT ON THE DANCE FLOOR! NOW—HAHAHA —STAHP!"

"WHAT?!" The two boys exclaimed in unison letting me go free. _I swear they are actual brothers._

"I believe I said it loud enough the first time." I grumbled, trying to catch my breath.

"He— when did you— how did you see them?!" Sirius managed to get out.

"I was trying to find Lily and thought she might have been hiding from James behind that really tall group of girls.. you know the ones who play Quidditch for the Ravenclaws? But instead of Lily, I found _those_ _two_ cutie patooties snogging... it was kind of gross to be honest, I sure hope we don't look like that..."

"You do, but it's okay." James said quickly. "But Dorcas, huh? Well she's pretty nice, could be good."

"I'm worried he won't ask her out though!" I said, remembering our discussion the other night.

"Yeah... well you know Moony, he's a chronic over thinker." James said. "If worse comes to worse, we'll just lock them in a room together until they figure things out" he said smirking at me and Sirius. This strategy has been pretty effective so far.

"Hang on.. Are they still out there?!" I asked.

Sirius was the one to look. He poked his head out of the compartment door, then swiftly came back inside mischievously smiling and wiggling his eyebrows. "They're flirting."

"How do you know it's flirting?" I asked.

"Just look for yourself."

I switched spots with the mutt and peaked my head out to see the two of them giggling and playfully swatting one another. _Looks like flirting to me._

We decided that he was doing well enough on his own that we didn't feel it was necessary to lock the two of them in a compartment... yet. Nearly 45 minutes later, Remus finally rejoined our group, looking absolutely star struck, smiling like the love sick werewolf puppy he truly is.

"So... how was Dory?" Sirius asked wiggling his eyebrows.

"Hmmm? Oh. She uh... she's great." Remus murmured.

"Remmy... you know I've been thinking and I realized something." I said.

"That your love of bacon and aversion to physical activity is going to lead to high cholesterol and poor cardiovascular health in your later years?"

"High chol— what?! No! I realized that Dorcas is very pretty and she's a Hufflepuff. She's a very pretty Hufflepuff with brown hair... who seems to fancy the stuffing out of you."

"Is there something you want to share with the group Mr. Lupin?" James asked in this parental voice.

Remus sighed. He knew we knew about 'Dory'. "I suppose I should come clean now... especially now that she's my girlfriend..."

 _GIRLFRIEND?!_

"GIRLFRIEND?! SHE'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND NOW?!" I squealed. I was rolling around on the train compartment floor being dramatic, but for once it wasn't a joke. I was just beside myself with excitement. "DOONY IS A THING?!"

"What the hell is a Doony?" I heard Sirius ask.

"I AM DEAD! I HAVE DECEASED!"

"Pull yourself together Greengrass!" James said loudly, putting an abrupt end to my excitement.

"Hey hey hey... let's play nice here kids.." Sirius said, pulling me to sit next to him. James was obviously in a bad mood.

James grumbled something under his breath and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why won't Lily go out with me?"

Oh. Yep. There we go. There are only three things can get James Potter in a sour mood. Quidditch, his unrequited love for Lily Evans, and when people refer to him as lil' Flea (you know, because his middle name is Fleamont... this one was more of a thing our first year).

"Maybe it's because you prank her best friend 4 days a week?" I tried.

"Or because you have a tendency to walk down the halls like you're a strutting runway model?" Sirius suggested.

"A classy high fashion one though!" I interjected.

"Or maybe it's because your ego is bigger than the castle?" Remus said with a smirk.

"Or possibly could it be because you often engage in reckless and slightly illegal activities such as becoming an unregistered Animagi?" I tried again.

James sulked even more. "Thanks. I get it."

Sirius, Remus, and I shared a look. We knew Lily liked him back. "If it makes you feel any better mate, she definitely fancies you." I told him with a little smile.

"No! Don't you hear the way she yells at me?! She _hates_ me." He looked like a kicked puppy.

"Nah, she doesn't. " Sirius said casually with a dismissive wave.

"Listen I'm going to tell you something that will probably get me killed." I started. James perked up. _Oooo Lily is going to kill me._ "You remember when you tricked her into going on a date with you before my party?"

"Yeah..."

"Well I talked to her about it afterword.. and she actually had a really good time with you James. She said if you acted like you did that day just in normal life, she wouldn't think you were as annoying." James looked like he was going to cry. Happy tears though, no worries. "Prongsy. She likes you, trust me. She just isn't ready to accept it yet."

"So... you're saying I should trick her into going on another date with me?"

"What?! No! How did you even get that from what I just said? Were you even listening?!" _Though, it really wasn't a bad idea._

We bickered for a while about if James should/ could trick Lily into going on another date with him, then eventually got sidetracked by a conversation about the logistics and legality of Sirius charming his Motorbike to fly until we pulled into the station.

There was no clear consensus on either topic.

"MERLINS PANTS! IS THAT WALLY?!" Sirius screamed rather loudly in my ear, frantically pointing out the window as the train began to slow.

I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a tall man with golden blonde hair, blue eyes, a face that eerily resembled Benny, wearing a faded Puddlemere United sweatshirt and a big smile. Yep. It sure was Wally.

"I believe it is.." I said calmly as Sirius began frantically waving. He reminded me an awful lot of this anxious Chihuahua my aunt Gerdy used to have named nibbles that used to pee on the floor when it got too excited.

I quickly tried to get us out of the train before Padfoot had any accidents and we all made our way to greet 'Wally'.

Once we got closer, I ditched my trunk with Sirius and ran and gave my dad the worlds biggest hug.

"Oomf, hi Ellie-boo!" He said, hugging me just as fiercely back. "Oh I missed you sweetie." He said as we swayed. I finally let go before Sirius wet himself with excitement.

"Sirius! Oh you've gotten so tall!" He exclaimed as he brought him in for a big hug as well. "You're all so tall!" He said looking at the other two grinning boys over Sirius's shoulder. Prongs and Moony shared a look before coming in for a big group hug.

I pulled out my wand and whispered " _Accio Remus's Camera,_ " under my breath. The camera zoomed out of his rucksack and I quickly took the opportunity to capture this moment of bromance.

They broke apart, and Sirius made his way next to me looking so happy I thought he might burst. "Ellie, where's your brother?" My dad asked.

"Oh um he was with a bunch of his Slytherin friends last we checked..." I said with a smirk remembering the gooey shoes.

"You lot pranked him didn't you?" Wally asked knowingly as we all nodded. "Well... as a dad I have to tell you I cannot condone you tormenting your brother... but as a fellow prankster I have to ask for some more details." He said with a wink.

"We charmed his goo into his shoes." Sirius said with a grin.

"But yesterday we changed his food to coal, and Ellie threw snowballs at him until he squealed like a first year girl!" James said happily.

"I did not." Said the overtly dignified voice of Benny Greengrass with his stupid nose up in the air like the pompous prat he is.

Wally made his way over to his son with a big smile, despite Benny's seeming disinterest in hugging him back. "It's so good to see you son. I missed you." He said. "You look more and more grown up every day..."

I scoffed. My dad swatted me from his hug.

Once we were all caught up Remus and James went to go find their own parents, and Benny went to say goodbye to his stupid friends.

"So... you two finally figured it out, huh?" Wally said.

My stupid handsome boyfriend and I shared a quizzical look. "Figured what out?" I asked.

"That you're meant for each other! Do you have any idea how hard it was to watch you both for all those years and not say anything!" He exclaimed while I laughed in disbelief.

"Well if it makes you feel any better Wally, I've known for much longer than she has." Sirius told him, winking. I just rolled my eyes.. he was right.

"Now Sirius, since you are _finally_ dating my daughter, I know that it is expected that I make some sort of speech about, 'if you hurt her, I'll find you and kill you blah blah blah...'"

"DAD!"

"Not now Ellie-boo, I'm busy intimidating your boyfriend." he shushed me before continuing. "but I honestly don't see the need for that. You are a good man, and I know that you will take care of her." he said kindly. "Besides, you already know that if you hurt her I'd hunt you down."

"I'd expect nothing less." Sirius said happily.

"Well now that that's finished, let's talk about when you are coming to visit!" Wally said excitedly.

Sirius looked down nervously. "I um... I don't know if that's going to happen this year, sir."

"Nonsense! You have to come! At least for Ellie-boo's birthday!"

"I want to. _Believe me_. But I just don't know if they'll let me out..." Sirius said quietly referring to his horrid parents.

"Ah. I understand." my dad told him. It was true, he knew all too well the struggles Sirius faced at home, having been through a similar situation in his youth. "Sirius, I want you to know that you are always, _always_ welcome at our home. Any day, any time, day or night. Announced, unannounced. Doesn't matter." He told him sincerely. "You are always welcome."

"Thank you sir. Really." Sirius said gratefully.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK THE THIRD!" called the shrill voice of his mother, Walburga Black, from a little ways down the platform.

"I think that's my cue..." Sirius told Wally. He then turned to me, lifting up my chin, brushing some of my wild hair behind my ear, smiling with gentle eyes. "I love you Elizabeth." he said before pressing a sweet soft kiss to my lips.

"I love you too Sir Padfoot." I said with sad eyes as he chuckled slightly. And then, just like that... he was gone and I was left alone with my dad, waiting for Benny to finish saying goodbye to his sketchy friends, and feeling that familiar holiday mix of sadness and excitement.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

Being back home was lovely (minus the part where I'm stuck in a confined space with the prat who called me a floozy and attacked my boyfriend). Our house wasn't anything too fancy. It was old, but very cozy and bursting with character. The four bedroom cottage, located near Ottery St Catchpole, stood amidst large trees and a babbling brook in the woods nearby.

On my first morning back, I stumbled into the kitchen wearing the colorful cat patterned pajamas (of course) that James had given me for my birthday the year before. They were too big to begin with, so now they fit just about right. My hair was French-braided back into two pigtails, and my face was tired and puffy from sleep, little pillow creases and dried up drool still very much evident on my face. I flopped down into a seat at the large rectangular wooden table, breathing in the mouthwatering smell of the bacon Dad was frying up.

"Good Morning Ellie-boo! How'd you sleep?" Dad asked. He was quite chipper... always been a morning person. Something we _do not_ have in common.

"Pretty well..." I respond with my eyes half open and stifling a yawn. "Dad, I have a question."

"What's up sweetie?"

"Why is there a fish in my room?"

"His name is Calvin."

"Okay, well why is Calvin in my room?"

"He likes the view from your window." He said as if this was a perfectly rational explanation.

"Oh. Of course." I muttered sarcastically.

Oh Calvin. Calvin was a big blue fish (I don't know what kind, don't ask) with more personality than any fish I'd ever had the pleasure of meeting. I would come to find out later that Dad rescued him from being eaten at some magical pub in town just after we left for school. Calvin would quite often do what I could only describe as _dance_ whenever I had the record player on or when I would sing along to the radio. He also had a habit of jumping in and out of the water of his oversized fishbowl just so that I would come sit by him. _And I thought Sirius was clingy..._

"Benny! There you are!" Dad exlaimed as my stupid brother walked in handing him a cup of coffee. He was wrapped up in his stupid Ravenclaw Blue robe, looking as pompous and conceited as ever.

"Good morning." He said curtly, picking up the Daily Prophet off the counter and sitting across from me at the table.

"So Benny... tell me about your girlfriend.." I said with a smirk. Honestly, I didn't know if Kenna Selwyn was his girlfriend or not, but it was worth a shot.

"What girlfriend?! Benny you have a girlfriend?! Oh my goodness! Don't take this the wrong way.. but I always thought you played for the other team.. if you know what I mean." My dad rambled, obviously missing the horrified look on his sons face.

I snickered and grabbed the paper right out of Benny's hands.

"I do not have a girlfriend! And I'm not gay!" He said huffily, snatching the paper back out of my hands.

"No one would care if you were gay Benny..." I began. "But, honestly I don't think anyone would really care all that much if you weren't. You aren't exactly fanciable for either team."

"Elizabeth!" Dad scolded. I shrugged. It was true.

"I'd suppose you'd know all about being 'fanciable' wouldn't you El?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I mean you seem to have all the boys attention... I even heard you got around with Bletchley. Has Sirius been tested? Wouldn't want him to catch something."

I responded to this ignorant comment in the most rational way possible... by launching myself across the table and whacking Benny with the rolled up news paper.

"YOU! PRICK! TAKE IT BACK!"

"NO! GET OFF OF ME YOU DIRTY WHORE!"

"STOP IT! STOP SAYING THAT! YOU KNOW BLOODY WELL THATS A LIE!"

"ELLIE! STOP BEATING YOUR BROTHER UP WITH THE NEWS PAPER! I WANT TO READ IT LATER! BENNY! STOP ANTAGONIZING YOUR SISTER BEFORE SHE'S HAD ANY BACON!"

"I WONT STOP UNTIL HE TAKES BACK WHAT HE SAID!" I scream, bashing Benny on the nose repeatedly.

Dad pulled out his wand and threw us into our seats, then charmed our lil Greengrass rumps to the chairs.

"You two are going to get along. Do you understand?!" Dad said. I didn't understand how that would be possible.

"I can't wait to be away from here..." Benny drawled rolling his eyes. I saw hurt flash in dad's eyes.

"Can't wait to go running off to Voldy and you're stupid death eater friends?" I spat. Dad looked shocked.

"My life is none of your business." Benny said coldly.

"It is however, _very much_ my business." Dad said in a very serious tone, lips pressed together in a tight thin line. Dad waved his wand and lifted the sticking charm holding me in my seat, then handed me a plate of bacon and told me to go upstairs and keep Calvin company.

I went, begrudgingly, upstairs to my room and sat at my desk overlooking the window. It was a very pretty view of the little tree lined clearing behind our house, I could see why Calvin liked it.

I shared a look with Calvin the fish. He seemed to understand that I was just as trapped in that room as he was in his fish bowl. After a long while of sharing knowing looks with a fish, I decided to write Sirius a letter.

 _Dear Sir Padfoot,_

 _The evil wizard started running his mouth again this morning so I whacked him with a newspaper until Wally broke us up. I miss you so much and just want you to come over so I can finally let you watch that muggle movie Lady and the Tramp with the dogs. I really hope home hasn't been too bad. Write back soon if you can._

 _I love you bunches._ _Lady Greengrass_

I whistled for Linda, our family Owl, to come out of hiding, then tied the rolled up letter to her little owl foot and set her off to find Sirius at 12 Grimmauld Place. (I also told her to be extra nice and not bite him if she could help it).

I once again began to wonder just how Benny had metamorphosed into such a prat. I was befuddled. Utterly and completely baffled as to what could bring on this change and contempt for me. In hindsight, I really wish I would have eavesdropped on Dad talking to Benny, but at the moment I just wanted a distraction so I pulled out my record player and blasted _Hey Jude_ by the Beatles.

Calvin wiggled happily doing his little fish jig and I pulled out my dusty old acoustic guitar and tried to pick out the chords, singing along, sitting on my fluffy white bed.

This is one of the reasons I loved being home. I didn't get a chance to just soak up music like this with all the hubbub back at school.

Later that day, after I had made myself presentable, Dad came up and said it was safe to come back down. I saw Benny sulking on the couch looking so... broken. It was a new look for him.

"Good afternoon Benjamin." I said bouncing onto the couch.

He nodded in acknowledgment then returned to reading some book about _efficiency in magical office space._

"Benny. I know you think I'm a big fat floozy or whatever, but I'm not. That was just a nasty rumor Noah Bletchley made up."

"I know."

"You know! And you still said it!"

"It bugged you so I went with it." He shrugged, smirking. Ooo I wanted to punch him so bad.

I got up from the couch huffing and puffing in agitation, raced upstairs to grab one of my dad's old Puddlemere United sweatshirts and my broom, then went outside to fly and clear my head until dinner. I almost got frostbite from the cold, but it was worth it not to be cooped up with that git.

The days leading up to Christmas all went a lot like this. Though Dad did teach me a couple of new moves on my broom once (he was the seeker for Puddlemere United for _years_ ).

On Christmas Eves Eve however, my glum schedule got shaken up a bit.

"Ellie, your brother and I are bringing soup and staying with your aunt Gerdy for the night. She has a cold but is acting as if it's the Spanish influenza. Do you think you'll be okay staying here and getting things cleaned up while we're gone?"

Dad knew I would rather clean toilets than go visit crazy Aunt Gerdy. "Sure thing. Can I use magic?" I asked hopefully. Dad had a look that screamed 'I will regret this later' but he agreed.

As soon as they left I changed into my house cleaning get up. This consisted of some fuzzy socks, a big Quidditch T-Shirt I stole from Sirius, some athletic shorts, and big yellow rubber gloves. I braided my hair back (before I put on the gloves) into French braided pigtails then brought down my record player from up stairs.

I blasted _Come Together_ by the Beatles as loudly as possible and danced whilst I dusted and the windows washed themselves (I'm a huge Beatles fan if you haven't noticed).

"COME TOGETHER RIGHT NOWWW OVER MEEE!" I sang loudly shaking my hips and dancing around dramatically. I did a little head banging during the breakdown.

Later that day... well I suppose it was night,I was still going strong and cleaning and jamming out. I brought Calvin down to the living room to join me early on.

My hair was springing out of its braids and I was dramatically singing 'Somebody to Love' at the top of my lungs.

"CAN ANYBODY FIND MEEEE... SOMEBODY TO LOVE!" I sang, jumping around theatrically, acting as if my wand was a microphone.

I suppose I looked a little crazed, but I didn't really worry about that. I was alone right?

"I JUST GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PRISON CELL! ONE DAY I'M GONNA BE FREE! LOOOORRRRRDDDDD—"

Suddenly I realize that Sirius was standing in the front door with a large backpack at his feet, a bloody lip, a black eye, his hair messy like he just hopped off his broom, and tears threatening to spill over. Despite his ragged and emotional state he looked entirely entertained by the show I was putting on.

I instantly turned the music down with a flick of my microphone... I mean wand... and ran toward him.

"Sirius, what- what happened?" I asked, doing a quick few healing spells on his lip and face.

"I ran away." He told me with a few tears running down his face. I gently pushed his messy hair away from his eyes then wiped the tears away. "I would have gone to James's house, but he's in Romania, and Wally said I could —"

I kissed him gently to make him shut up, then I brought him into the newly clean living room and magicked us each a cup of tea. I just sat cuddled up beside him as we sipped our tea, and told him he could explain what happened when he was ready.

"May I ask what on earth you were doing when I walked in?" He asked after a while.

I blushed faintly, then said "Cleaning?"

He looked at me with a small smile creeping up on his face. "Do you always clean like that?"

I half-shrugged. "I do when no one is around..."

"When we get married, I want it written in our vows that you will _always_ clean like that." He said, trying not to laugh.

 _'When we get married.' Not 'if'. When._

 _I liked that._

"Deal." I said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

We sat in silence for a while longer and eventually drifted off to sleep upon the squishy couch, hands intertwined. I woke up to him drooling on my head, and got up to get the guest room set up for him. I pulled out some of Dad's old sweats and placed them on the bed for him to wear instead of his leather jacket and jeans.

"Okay, come on Padfoot. Up we go." I said coaxing the handsome boy in my living room awake.

"Mmmphmmm" he mumbled. He opened his eyes and gave a soft smile. "You're so pretty."

I blushed and smiled involuntarily, he eventually got up, and I led him to the guest room he had stayed in so many times before.

"I got you some of Dad's sweats... didn't think you'd want to sleep in Benny's clothes—"

"Hang on, where is Wally?" Sirius asked poking around.

"He and Benny went to take care of my Aunt Gerdy for the night. She has a cold. He'll be back tomorrow."

"Oh okay... Isn't that the aunt that calls you Ann and knits those itchy sweaters?"

"Yep. That's the one." I chuckled as he sighed contentedly looking around the cozy room.

"Thank you Ellie. Really. I promise I'll explain everything tomorrow, but I just want you to know that you turned the worst day of my life into the best night just by you being you." He said sincerely.

I got butterflies. "I love you." I said smiling up at him.

"I love you too."

Though it was under terrible circumstances, I was so thankful that I had my favorite person with me and that he was okay.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

On the morning after Sirius showed up at my doorstep (AKA Christmas Eve), I honestly forgot for a whole 5 minutes (while I was trying to garner enough self will to get myself out of bed), that he was sleeping down the hall. However, once I remembered, I shot out of bed quicker than James when he found out Lily kissed him at my early birthday party.

I brushed my teeth,washed my face, sprinted out of my room, into his, then pounced onto his bed. Maybe not the most gentle way of waking someone, but it was usually pretty effective and highly entertaining.

"arrreuuuggghhhh." he complained unintelligibly.

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up you beautiful mutt! " I sang, bouncing on the bed and embracing my inner James Potter.

Eventually he opened his eyes a bit to see me giving him a big goofy grin. He pulled me down to him, knocking me over in the process, and hugged me tight. It was really sweet and all, but my head was squished against his chest and I really couldn't breathe so I fought my way out of his cuddly clutches, then literally dragged him out of bed... or tried to.

"Come. On. You. Stupid. Heavy. Boy. Get. UP!" I said between each tug of his arms as I tried to drag him out of the bed.

"Nooo! It's so comfy here Snugs!" He said fighting to stay on the bed. "You of all people should understand!"

"But Wally will be back soon and I need you to keep me company while I wrap his gift!" I whinged, still futilely pulling on his arm.

"Wally?!" He said wrenching his arms out of my grip easily and sitting up... and knocking me over... _Really should have tried that sooner..._ "You're so cute in your little squirrel pajamas." He said smirking. I glanced down at my colorful squirrel patterned night gown, then rolled my eyes.

"Oh shut it. Come on, I'll make you some breakfast." I said giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

He eventually made his way down stairs where I had already began making some pancakes with fresh fruit and bacon. He came in and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind.

"I can do that if you need me to.." he said in my ear, resting his chin on my shoulder. Too bad he was a terrible cook. Dad wouldn't be too happy if I had a boy stay over _and_ burnt down the house... even if it was Sirius.

"How about you cut up the fruit?" I suggested, fighting back the images of our house being burnt to a crisp as a smiling Sirius stood by in an apron.

"Ugh. Fine. But one day I'm going to cook for you." He mumbled. _Yeah right._

After we finished breakfast we moved our little party up to my room so I could wrap my dad's gift... and I guess Benny's too. Dad would kill me if I didn't get him anything. I had already finished wrapping Sirius's present since I thought I would have to send it to him today.

Sirius sat beside me on the white shag rug (as moral support) as I tried to wrap presents while _Blackbird_ by the Beatles played softly in the background.

"Ow!" I exclaimed putting my bleeding finger in my mouth after my 3rd paper cut. There was a reason I got Lily to wrap my presents at school.

"Snugs, please just let me help. I'm pretty good at it."

I gave up and switched spots with him, muttering a healing spell for my sad wounded finger.

"Oh come on! Really?!" I cried out as Sirius presented me with a perfectly wrapped box, smirking. I shoved the other box for Benny his way with my nose all scrunched up in disgruntlement. Sirius responded by laughing at me...

He was nearly finished wrapping Benny's stupid gift whilst I pouted looking at my Prankmas snow-globe, when we heard a voice coming up from downstairs.

"ELLIE?! ELLIE-BOO?! WHERE ARE YOU?" Wally called from down the hall. I instantly had the theme song of 'Scooby Doo' stuck in my head. "Ellie are you— OH!"

Dad did an almost jump from surprise at seeing Sirius sitting on my floor wrapping gifts in his old clothes like it was no big deal.

"SIRIUS! When did you get here?!" He asked with a big grin.

I bit the inside of my cheek, and glanced over to Sirius. "Last night sir." He said quietly hunching over his shoulders and quickly averting his eyes. We still hadn't talked about what happened.

Realization flashed in Wally's eyes, then empathy. "Ellie do you mind if I steal him away for a chat down stairs?" Dad asked. I shrugged with a sad smile.

Sirius finished up wrapping Benny's gift and went downstairs with Dad. I acted casual, then creeped to the landing where I couldn't be seen, but I could still hear what they were saying.

"Sirius... You didn't come here just to eat some of Ellie-boo's famous Christmas cookies did you?" My dad asked knowingly.

"No sir... I... I didn't know where else to go... I- I ran away." Sirius said, sounding so sad and broken. It made me want to run up and hug him so tight that it somehow fit all his broken pieces back together.

There was a pause. Then I heard my dad say, "Ellie. Go back to your room, I know you're listening."

 _What the hell?! How does he always know!_

I went back and pulled out the acoustic guitar and began finger-picking out Blackbird and softly singing to Calvin the fish. He danced slowly in his oversized fishbowl. I however, felt useless being cooped up and out of the loop.

I started and stopped the song over and over again with each time I messed up. I finally made it most of the way through and then flubbed the whole thing and just gave up.

"Wait! Don't stop! It sounded so good!"

I turned around to see Sirius standing against the door frame... that nosey mutt was listening in. I instantly blushed bright red. I was fine with him seeing me prance around being a big dramatic diva while I clean, but it was an entirely different thing for him to see me actually trying...

"No! Go away!" I complained putting the guitar down and throwing my face into the pillow in embarrassment.

"What!? Why?!" He exclaimed.

I shook my head and mumbled something completely incomprehensible into the pillow. I felt him hop on the bed and rub my back. "Ellie. I like the way you sing... I think that fish liked it too... I didn't know you even had a fish.."

"himphh neemm imph cammvmm" I said into the pillow.

"I have no idea what you're trying to say."

I moved my head to the side, "His name is Calvin. He's dad's."

"Ohhh! I do remember him mentioning something about a fish rescue...But back to the point. You have no reason to be embarrassed about singing. You're amazing... There are plenty of other embarrassing things that you do that you can be mortified about." He said chuckling. _Wow... So funny._ I hit him with a pillow.

I sat up and sat cross legged in front of him on the big white squishy bed. "Did you and Dad have a nice chat?" I asked.

"Actually we did. He said I could stay here the rest of break." He told me with a smile. It wasn't a particularly happy smile. It was a smile that somehow hid a deeper sense of sorrow behind it. I knew that smile well.

"Sirius. What happened?" I asked, lightly drawing circles and shapes on his wrist with my thumb as I loosely held his hand.

He took a deep breath and snuggled closer to me. "Things were okay for the first few days. I mostly hid in my room, but obviously had to go downstairs to eat... I got into it a few times with mother, but nothing I hadn't dealt with before... but yesterday, I just couldn't take it anymore. They... they.. well they were all in particularly good spirits that day. I wore that muggle superhero shirt you gave me and they didn't say a thing! That's when I knew they were plotting something awful. So I went to dinner, still in the superman shirt, and Walburga starts going on and on about how lovely Berniece Carrow was. So I asked Reg if he was dating her or something and he just gave me this weird look... You know how purebloods are, wanting to marry their cousins and all that nonsense for the sake of 'keeping the bloodlines pure'. Well, turns out Mother dearest convinced Berniece's family to take me on as her fiancé."

I gasped.

"You can only imagine what came next. I told her absolutely not and that I was with you. Then she called you and Wally blood traitors and you a uh... um.."

"A whore?" I supplied in a bored tone.

"Yeah... so then I just lost it. Spells were fired, I got pretty banged up, then I just ran up to my room, threw some essentials into my backpack, hopped on my broom, and flew out the window and straight here." he finished with a humorless laugh.

"She's a wicked woman." I said with tears at the corner of my eyes. I couldn't stand Walburga Black.

"She is." He agreed.

"So what did you and Dad talk about?" I asked.

"Oh! Well I told him what happened.. he was pretty happy I didn't pick Berniece over you for obvious reasons." he chuckled. "And then he told me about when he ran away from home when he was 17... Well I'm sure you know the story, but I hadn't heard it before. It's just really nice having someone to talk to that's been through the same thing.." he said with a soft smile.

William Thomas Greengrass indeed had been through a similar situation. He was 17 and dating my sweet half-blood, Hufflepuff mummy, Genevieve Abbott, at the time. Somehow his older sister, Desdemona Greengrass, found out about their relationship and told his mother, Malvolia Greengrass. Grandma Greengrass was NOT happy about his pureblood son mucking about with the likes of her, especially since she had planned out for him to marry some ugly Malfoy girl that looked like a "parrot with the flu". Long story short, he left home and punched his sister in the nose in the process, and went off and married my mum the month after they graduated from Hogwarts before he went on the road playing for Puddlemere United.

"I'm glad you came here." I said, smiling up at him.

He kissed my head lightly. "Me too."

"So, do you want to come help me make my famous Christmas cookies?" I asked.

"Of course!" he laughed.

Don't worry. I wasn't planning to let him go anywhere near the oven.

We were walking down the hall, making our way to the kitchen downstairs, when we ran into Benny,

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" he spat giving Sirius a dirty look.

"His life is none of your business Benny." I said pulling Sirius away by the hand.

I didn't really account for Benny following us down.

He sat at the table, reading another boring book about _magical transportation._.. okay, maybe that book kind of looked interesting, but I hated it because Benny was reading it.

Sirius sat at the table across from him, waiting like a little kid for me to give him some cookie dough to mix. "Hey! What's that book about Ben?" Sirius asked genuinely. I knew exactly why he was interested in that book.

"The history and methods of Magical transportation," Benny drawled in a bored tone. Sirius's eyes lit up. I hope Benny held onto that book tight, because there was a very good chance it would be stolen.

"Okay! So we have quadruple chocolate chip, Kris Kringle Mint, and Pumpkin peanut butter nutter." I told the boys. "Who wants to mix what? oh! and I already picked quadruple chocolate chip." I smirked.

"I'll take the pumpkin one." Benny mumbled. I stared at him. Then I blinked. Then I looked at Sirius who was making a similar face. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Benny asked.

"Well.. it's just... I expected you to... well you know... be a total prat and pull some uppity line about how cookie making was beneath you." I said. Sirius nodded, wide eyed in agreement.

"Just hand me the damn cookie mix El." Benny said putting his hand out and rolling his eyes.

"It's a Christmas Miracle..." I muttered under my breath.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

I was sleeping all snug in my bed, dreaming of sugar plum fairies or something trite like that, when all of a sudden there arose such a clatter from above me that all hopes at a peaceful sleep were extinguished.

"CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!" said a voice... loudly.

"Nooo... Sleeep gooood." I grunted, hiding my head under my pillow.

"WAKE UP SNUGS!!!!!" said another voice. _Why are there two of them?_

"ELLLLIIIEEE BOOOO!!!!! WAAAAAAKE UUUUUPP!!!!!" said the first voice.

Suddenly I became very cold and the world was much too bright. I fought to grab my blankets and pillow, but it was two against one. I glance over to see Calvin smirking. I didn't even know that fish could smirk. Cheeky little thing better watch out before I turn him into cat food...

I finally just curled up on the ground where Dad and Sirius had thrown the blanket and pillows.

"NO NO NO! YOU ARE GETTING UP!" Sirius said just before he hoisted me over his shoulder, fluffy comforter and all. Usually he didn't let me bring stuff like that with me, I expect he was just in a generous mood on account of it being a holiday and all.

Sirius carried me down against my will to our cozy living room where there was a sea of presents... well technically it was more like a pond or lake... It was some body of water between a sea and a puddle of presents.

Anyway, he let me off on the couch and helped me get all situated in my comforter cocoon, then went to the kitchen to grab us coffee, and to tell Benny that it was time.

Sirius had never had Christmas at our home before. He had stayed at the castle one year, and gone to James's house another, but he had only ever come over to our home on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day.

"Oooo! I can't wait for you all to open your gifts!" Dad said bouncing in his squashy chair wearing a Santa hat that bobbed around happily.

Sirius and Benny came back in, and I held onto the warm coffee mug greedily, relishing in its warmth. "mmmm... Sirius this is so good! Did you put mint in this?!"

Sirius grinned from his place just beside me on the couch. "Yep."

I sniffed the air..

"Why are you sniffing the air?" he asked all confused. I thought the answer would be obvious, but I guess I would have to spell it out for the poor mutt.

"I was checking to make sure you didn't burn anything." I deadpanned. He gave me a bit of a dirty look, but nothing was going to stifle his Christmas spirit today.

"Alrighty! Who's first?!" Dad asked happily.

"How about Sirius? He's the guest and all.." Benny suggested. I would probably categorize him more as an honorary part of the family... guest sounds so formal..

"Oh I don't have to... I- it's your house-" He said incoherently. I figured he just felt awkward about not having presents, but little did he know that there were just as many for him as there were for the rest of us.

"Nonsense! You go right ahead!" Dad said looking for a gift for Sirius among the lake of presents surrounding the great and dazzling Christmas tree. "Here! This one is from me!" He said handing Sirius a medium sized gift, wrapped in metallic gold paper and topped with a big red bow.

Sirius looked more than a little surprised, but took the gift and ripped into it enthusiastically. "Good Merlin! This is perfect!" he yelped. Sirius held in his lap a book on how to charm muggle inventions. I don't think that sort of thing is exactly legal... but it was the perfect thing for him to use when he started working on making that motorbike fly.

"I thought you might like it!" dad said happily. "Okay, next one is for Benny!"

Dad next picked up a big square box, wrapped in metallic blue paper with a big silver bow upon it. He liked shiny paper I guess. Benny opened the gift so annoyingly slow that I tossed a stuffed reindeer we had out as decoration at his face. He didn't like that and proceeded to open it even slower out of pure spite.

Once he did _finally_ open the stupid gift, he found a whole set of enchanted quills that would spell check your work and were self inking, so he wouldn't have to spend extra time dipping his quill in ink while working, much like a muggle pen. I thought it was rather dull, but Benny thought it was spectacular and went on and on about how much more efficient it would be. Boring.

"Okay Ellie-boo, you're next !" Dad said sweetly, picking up a big box wrapped in white paper with little metallic snowflakes, and topped with a big pink bow (all our gifts from him were color coordinated so he could know which one was for whom without digging around).

I ripped off the bow and placed it on my head, then continued to rip apart the paper to shreds. I opened the box to find a whole collectors case of my favorite Disney movies. Yes I was nearly a week away from turning 16. No I didn't care that they were movies made for children. They were cinema classics.

"AHHHH THIS IS PERFECT!" I squealed, bouncing around in my comforter cocoon in delight. Sirius fixed my pink bow when it started to fall off... "Oh! Pads! Look! It has Lady and the Tramp!! We can watch it tonight!" I said happily looking over at Sirius. He looked at me with those soft dreamy eyes and a contented smile that just made my heart melt into a puddle.

"Alright, Dad you're next." Benny said, ruining the moment.

Benny handed Dad his gift, wrapped in sensible brown paper with a twine bow. Dad opened the gift and found that it was a rather large book, with lots of pictures, on the history of Quidditch. _Not bad Benny. Not bad at all._

"Okay! You're next again Sirius!" I said handing him a very messily wrapped box with more than a few bloodstains evident upon the black and white paw print paper I stole from James. I sat beside him, absolutely giddy. Sirius opened the package to reveal two things. The first was a patch for his leather jacket that said **"CAT LOVER".** I was a tad bit worried he wouldn't find it funny, but he chortled in delight. Under the silly patch was a black wooden case. He had no idea what it was, which made it even more fun. He pulled the case out of the box and opened it up to reveal his very own enchanted record player!!! AAAHHH! I know, I'm the best gift giver ever.

"This is- THIS IS SO COOL! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" He said peppering my face with little kisses causing me to giggle. "Okay, you next!" Sirius said, grabbing a rather large box I hadn't seen before.

I opened the bright red box and first found a super sexy black leather jacket. "Hot." I said factually, as I lifted it up to get a better look. Sirius smirked. On the back were the words "LADY GREENGRASS" in a very pretty font. Silly, yes. But it was very fitting. Then I looked at what was underneath it. I couldn't help but smile when I said, "You idiot. Really?"

I lifted out a pink motorbike helmet with big freaking cat ears on top. Sirius busted out laughing, Wally thought it was great, and Benny seemed rather amused. "If I was going to take you on the bike, I had to make sure you were safe." Sirius said smirking after his uproarious bark-like laughter had calmed down.

"Oh! Wally! I have one for you too!" Sirius said. He looked around under all the wrapping paper surrounding us and found a package wrapped in reindeer patterned paper.

Dad took the gift, saying, "Sirius! You didn't have to get me anything!"

"I wanted to." Sirius said genuinely.

Dad smiled kindly at the curly headed runaway and proceeded to open his gift. It was a book on raising magical fish. Dad thought it was 'PERFECT'.

Next I gave Benny his gift from me. It was a book called _"Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches"._ Sirius, Dad, and I all thought it was both funny and practical, but Benny merely rolled his eyes with a teeny tiny hint of a smile and threw the stuffed reindeer back at my face.

Sirius then opened a few more boxes in a row from Dad, they were all clothes and stuff since he didn't have a whole lot here. I opened a few boxes of clothes too, including some dog patterned pajamas that Sirius found _hilarious_.

Benny got some clothes and stuff too I think.. I dunno, I went to grab some bacon when he was opening them. But then he gave me his gift for me, wrapped in the same boring brown paper as Dad's. To my surprise there were not one, but two books within the box. The first was a book of healing spells and potion recipes. Actually very useful... The second was a biography of Dilys Derwent, my absolute favorite healer of all time. I wanted to hate him, or bash his gift somehow, but I couldn't. It was absolutely _perfect_. "Benny! This-This is actually great! Thank you!"

Dad then finally opened his gift from me. It was a neatly wrapped box with a few bloodstains from all the battle wounds inflicted when I tried to wrap it myself. He opened it and found a brand new Puddlemere United jersey with 'Greengrass' and his old number (14) written on the back. He looked a little teary eyed. "I thought you could wear it when we go to the games over the summer." I told him happily. We had season tickets for life since he played for the team so long.

"This is so thoughtful Ellie-boo. Thank you." he said with a happy, but watery smile. "oh! I have one last one for you!" he exclaimed grabbing the last box topped with a big pink bow. "It's actually not from me though... it's from your mother..." He said with a sad smile handing me the small box.

 _My mother?_ I felt a wave of sadness and grief crash over me. That was not what I was expecting. Sirius seemed to sense this and put his arm around my waist and kissed my head, dodging the obnoxious pink bow.

I took the box and carefully opened it with slightly shaky hands. First was a letter. I carefully pulled it out and smoothed it to read:

 _Ellie Ann,_

 _First of all, I want to tell you how very much I love you. You my dear sweet wild girl are more precious than any trinket I could ever bestow to you._

 _Next, I know you are probably wondering why you are even receiving this letter and gift. I am close to the end as I write this, but wanted to make sure to keep an old family tradition alive in my absence... Also I love the idea of being able to speak some motherly wisdom to you at such a formative time in your life. (Don't worry, Benny will be getting ... well I guess got a letter of maternal wisdom too at your age.)_

 _My darling Ellie Ann, you are not your accomplishments or the presents you receive or the praise you get from those around you. You are not the opinion of others, for the better or for the worse. You are you. Your life is defined by the love you give to others, even when loving them seems impossible, and by the unconditional love of those like your father and I who would go to the ends of the earth for you. My hope is that you will find those few rare gems of friends and hold tight to them and love them well. I also secretly hope that you are dating Sirius by this point, if not, you need to get on it because that boy is perfect for you and just such a cutie._

 _Now, onto the tradition. It has been a Christmas tradition in my family, for as long as anyone can remember, to bestow a gift to their daughters at your age. Inside this box which your father has hopefully wrapped, you will find a case with a locket. It is to remind you that no matter how old you get, what crazy things you do, and wherever life takes you for the better or worse, that you are so utterly loved and cherished. It is to remind you that you should walk through life with the confidence of a princess. It is to remind you to embrace your flaws and quirks, and never diminish the light that you bring to the world._

 _I love you so so soooo very much my sweet baby girl, and I am so sorry that we had such little time together._ _The ones we love never really leave us though. I will be with you always. I will always be with you in your heart, beating within your chest and rooting for you at every big and little moment of your life._

 _I will always love you._

 _Mummy_

I tried to wipe away the tears falling down my eyes as I read and re-read the letter. I could hear her tinkling sweet voice so clearly in my head. I could almost smell the sent of vanilla that always seemed to linger around her. I sniffled and carefully folded the letter and set it beside me. I wish I could tell you what the others were doing at this point, but I have no idea.

I opened the velvet jewelry box, and within, just as mum had said, was a very delicate and very pretty locket with an engraved heart. I opened it, hands still shaking, and saw a moving photo of mum holding me in a field when I was little. It was my favorite picture of us. The breeze blew both of our wild hair around as she held me and we laughed in a field of wild flowers. On the other side was a note that said in small delicate print, her handwriting, "Utterly loved and cherished".

This is when I lost it. Tears were flowing as a result of the bitter sweet gift. I tried so hard to be strong all the time, but one letter from my mother and I was a blubbering mess.

Sirius of course had no idea what to make of this, but held me in my comforter cocoon and rubbed soothing circles on my back as I tried to regain some composure. I was very thankful this was the last gift.

"Your mother said you would react like that." Dad said with a watery smile. "She was always so wise."

"Yeah... she made me tear up a bit too when I read my letter..." Benny added, rubbing his eye like he had an itch or something.

"Oh hush up Benny! You were crying just as much, if not more!" Dad said, throwing Benny under the bus. This made me smile.

I let Sirius read the letter and he barked a laugh at the part mentioning him, then gave me a big hug.

This was the best Christmas I had had since mum passed... but now I knew that she had never truly left us at all.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

So, Christmas was great, even with the waterworks by yours truly. Pads and I watched muggle movies all night on a squishy soft pallet in the living room while eating popcorn... we may or may not have had a popcorn fight.

The next morning I woke up all snuggled up next to him, popcorn and drool in my hair, relaxed by the sound of Sirius's steady deep breaths as he kept sleeping. At first I didn't think anything of the fact that we were asleep in each others arms in plain view of anyone who walked by. Then I heard the cold annoying voice of Benjamin Greengrass...

"Really El?! Ugh. At least have the decency to act embarrassed.." he said throwing a pillow at me. _Just because they are called 'throw' pillows, doesn't mean you can throw them at unsuspecting sleeping sisters!!!!_

"Shut up Benny and go be an uptight ninny somewhere else." I mumbled burrowing my face into Sirius's side.

"I know Dad loves Sirius and all... but this is pushing the limit El..."

He had a point...

"Ugh. Fine. Wake up Pads." I said squirreling out of his arms.

"No! Come back! Snuggles!" Sirius whined.

Benny scoffed.

"Shut up Benny." I said coldly. Have I mentioned how much I am not a morning person?

After everyone was up, we moved into the kitchen where I made us some waffles with a side of bacon.

Dad came down around this time and was all dressed, wearing his reading glasses, scanning the sports section of the paper with a contented smile.

Everything was lovely... too lovely. It was like I was just waiting for something bad to happen. Call it what you want, intuition, the inner eye, but I knew something _not so lovely_ was just around the corner.

Approximately 9.5 minutes later a large ugly unlovely owl showed up at our kitchen window. We let it in, and it scuttled directly over to the stupid handsome boy stuffing his face with waffles. Sirius looked thrown off guard. A little bit of syrup dribbled down his chin as he just stared at the fowl foul sitting on our kitchen table as if he was in a daze.

"Umm... Pads... I think it wants you to take the letter..." I said gently, trying to break Sirius out of his trance like state.

"Oh.. yeah." He said, words muffled as his mouth was still full of waffles. He untied the letter and the hideous beast immediately flew out and back to where ever it came from. Sirius opened the letter, making a face like he was afraid it would start screaming at him. To be fair, it wouldn't have been an unprecedented event.

I watched his grey eyes scan over the contents of the letter and watched as his stern face twitched with emotion: anger, sadness, confusion.

"They want me to come back." He stated emotionlessly. Handing the letter to Dad. "With Ellie." He added. I just stared at him with wide eyes and my mouth agape, nearly burning the waffles.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"They want him to come back to get his things, but they requested that you come too..." Dad said looking down at the paper with a disapproving scowl.

"Well that wasn't exactly a necessary request.. I would have come regardless..." I started.

"No. You don't understand. She's up to something Ellie. I've known that woman for 16 years. This is a trap or a scheme or something." Sirius said, face lacking all warmth and lightness. I sat beside him and smoothed the little crease between his furrowed brows.

"Well... what do you want to do?" I asked him. As much as I loathed Walburga Black, I was _not_ afraid of her or any of the other tossers in his family. Sirius looked to Dad.

"Wally... what do I do? All my school things are there... all my pictures... and.. OH MERLIN! I LEFT THE SHRUNKEN BIKE THERE!" Sirius exclaimed, running his hands through his hair muttering curses at himself for his apparent stupidity that I did not agree with.

"Wait... did you run away?" Benny asked, apparently shocked. We all sort of looked at him and realized we never gave him an explanation for Sirius's presence.

"Yes." Sirius said simply without looking up.

"Okay.. Here's what's going to happen." I said raising his chin. "You are going to go back there, get your things and then we are going to leave safe and sound."

"WE!? No Ellie. You can't come." He said stubbornly.

Word of advice... if you ever want to insure that Elizabeth Ann Greengrass does something... tell her that she can't.

I laughed in his face. "Sirius, if you think I'm intimidated or can't handle my own against that dilapidated hawk of a woman, you do not know me at all. But, if it'll make you feel better, we can have Dad come check on us if we're there past a certain point." I told him.

"I still can't put you in that kind of danger Ellie... Oh no. s-stop it. E-Ellie I'm S-Serious..."

"You're always Sirius," I said as I puppy dog pouted.

"Fine! Fine, you can come." He said finally.

Benny looked on shocked at how quickly he caved. "He's worse than I am.."

So, with the plan settled, Sirius replied back to his mother telling her that we would be arriving at 9am the next morning to retrieve his things.

Dad apparated us to the doorstep of number twelve Grimmauld Place at 8:58am the next morning.

"ooommfff... I think I'm going to be sick!" I said. I hated apperating, mostly because it made me feel like this.

"Aim it towards the doorstep so Mum can get a good look." Sirius chortled, holding my hair back. I did just that. "Nicely done Ellie!" Sirius praised. _Disgusting._

"hmm.. maybe you two can try taking the floo back.." Dad said, scrunching his nose up in slight disgust. "Now, if you aren't out by 9:30 I am going to come get you, alright?" We both nodded, and with that, he apperated back home and we stared at the silver serpent of a door knocker and rung the doorbell. There was a loud, clanging bell that could be heard as the door swung open to reveal Walburga Black herself.

"What is _this?"_ she asked in a sharp voice, gesturing to my vomit upon her door step.

"um. I believe that _was_ my breakfast. " I said, still feeling a little nauseous.

"Oh! You must be Elizabeth! Come in, come in!" She said kindly? Dare I say hospitably? _This whole thing just got very weird._ Sirius looked shocked and suspicious. "Kreature! Clean up that mess!" She told the old, pig nosed house elf who took the task upon him with more dignity than I thought possible. "Elizabeth, would you like some tea to calm your stomach?" She asked.

Part of me, somewhere in my mind screamed 'NO! DON'T BE DAFT! SHE WILL POISON YOU!', but a louder part, coming from my angry stomach said 'YES! TAKE THE BLOODY TEA! POISON IS BETTER THAN THE HURRICANE BREWING WITHIN RIGHT NOW'. My stomach was more persuasive.

"Um. yes.. please." I said. Sirius gave me a sharp disapproving look. I shrugged and mouthed 'what?'.

Sirius shuffled closer, "You can't take that! She may poison you!"

"Well then you make me some damm tea before I thow-up again into this ugly troll foot... what is that anyway? an umbrella stand? It's really hideous... "

"Ughh fine I'll go make sure she doesn't poison you." Sirius said, dragging me into the kitchen.

"So, Elizabeth, I have been eager to meet you ever since Sirius here told us of your... relationship." she said with a sickly sweet smile. _Yeah right._

"Oh really now? What was it that struck your fancy? The fact that I'm a blood traitor or the bit about me being the biggest floozy at Hogwarts?" I asked in an equally sickly sweet voice as I sipped my tea. _Ha. two can play this game you dilapidated hawk._

Sirius looked a little shocked, but Walburga didn't miss a beat. "Oh, all words said in the heat of the moment dear," She said smiling and waving off the comment dismissively. "From what I hear you are quite the accomplished student, I hear you wish to be a healer?" _How the hell did she know that!?_

"I... um yes.." I said glancing over at Sirius, he was obviously just as surprised as I was that she knew this information.

"And you play Quidditch?" she pried.

"Yes. Seeker." I said shortly. I was sick of this game.

"Well I think it's time I head up and grab my things, come on Ellie." Sirius said, getting up and holding my hand as he tried to make his way out of the kitchen.

"Sirius, you can head on up. I would like to speak with Elizabeth here in private."

"No." Sirius growled immediately.

"Sirius, that wasn't a request." She said in her sharp tone of voice again, her face turning more hawkish.

"I-I'll be fine Pads, just hurry and I'll see you down here when you get done." I said squeezing his hand. Sirius looked to the woman, then to me. He knew he stood no chance against two stubborn women and went hesitantly, but I could hear him sprinting up the stairs once he was out of view.

"Now, Elizabeth, please sit." Walburga Black said in that sickly sweet voice once again. "I can see that you mean a great deal to my son." she began, "I also know that you care deeply about him as well."

"How do you know so much about me?" I asked bluntly. I suspected she would say it was because of Regulus, though I'd never seen Regulus as the type to gossip.

"I have my connections." She said with a wide malicious smile. "I hear your brother has connections as well... Benjamin seems to be headed toward great things." She remarked off handedly.

"Keep my family out of your mouth." I growled.

"Now, now, we are just having a conversation my dear." she said to me. "I do wonder what it would take for you to understand where I am coming from," She said mostly to herself. "Your brother desires power and prestige, but you are cut from a slightly different cloth aren't you? Daughter of a half-blood Hufflepuff, I should expect nothing less.."

"Don't you dare speak about my mother." I said glaring at her intensely.

"I only mean to say, that your motivations are a bit more... _noble_ than your brothers."

"What is your point? You obviously want something. Let's just be frank here Walburga." I spat coldly at the horrible woman sitting across from me.

Her mouth turned up into a sinister smile. "Very well. I have a proposition for you Miss Greengrass. You pledge to come over to the winning side of the war that is looming, and in exchange, your family and Sirius will be kept safe, and completely unharmed."

"NO." I said resolutely. _Did this idiot woman really think that I would come over to the dark side with her? OH. HELL. NO._

"I wasn't finished. You can either pledge your allegiance, giving us useful information, and reap the benefits after the war is won, or you can die along side everyone you love and care about." She said, still in her sickly sweet voice.

"I would rather die, than be on any side of yours"I said standing up and walking out of the room.

"You may soon have your wish Elizabeth." She called from behind me.

I made my way up the landing calling for Sirius who appeared _instantly_. "Grab your stuff. We're leaving now." I said with zero humor. Sirius obliged.

We rushed down the stairs with Sirius's trunk on our way to the fireplace in the drawing room, only to run into Regulus Black.

"So that's it. You're really leaving?" Regulus asked Sirius. He was trying to stay emotionless, but I could see he was hurt.

"I can't stay here Reg. It's not because of you though... I just can't take it anymore Reggie."

Regulus nodded.

"Reg, you know you don't have to stay here either, you can come with us..." Sirius said in a small voice. I nodded in agreement.

"I can't do that Sirius, it would break her heart." Regulus said sincerely. _I wasn't aware she had a heart to break... but whatever._

"Now is not the time to give up your Slytherin-ness Reg. Look out for yourself." I said, still fuming from my conversation with his mother.

Regulus gave a small smile at my choice of words. "Maybe one day." He said softly before heading up the stairs, stopping half way up the landing to say, "Stay safe Siri."

Sirius took a deep steadying breath, then proceeded down the stairs. We quickly ran to the fire and took the floo home, before Dad came in wand blazing in a protective fury.

We were squeezed through the floo network, and finally arrived in the living room of our cozy cottage, immediately met by the sight of Dad staring at his watch and bouncing his knee.

Dad stood up immediately as he saw us arrive. "Are you alright?! Are you hurt?!"

"We're fine Dad."

Sirius wheeled around to face me. "What the hell did she say to you?" he asked me quickly. He was angry, but not angry with me... still it was always a little unsettling to see him so upset.

"I think it's better if you sit down for this one Paddy." I told him gently.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

Sirius sat upon our squashy couch, jaw set, hands clenched tight, breath puffing from his nose like an angry bull ready to charge some poor bloke stuck holding a red cape, and his grey eyes cold, unwavering, looking at the fireplace like a lion stalks it's prey.

It had been about 15 minutes since I'd rehashed the entire conversation with that wicked woman who gave birth to him, and thought it best not to disturb him.

"She threatened you." Sirius said, still staring at the fireplace, though I'm pretty sure he was talking to me and not Dad. "She wants you to be a spy." he growled with contempt. Upon re-examination, I realize that may have been what she was implying... "She tried to use your goodness against you, and she's trying to turn Benny." he said in a cold voice.

I didn't respond. I didn't know how to calm him. I always knew how to diffuse the tension in a situation, I usually could come up with some clever quip to distract him from that dark place he traveled to in his mind, but today, I had nothing.

Sirius then stood up, screaming a loud creative stream of profanities and went out the backdoor to the clearing I used to practice my flying. I shot a look to Dad, then followed. I stepped outside to see him chunking Gnomes hiding in the shrubs between the back door and the broom shed as far as he could. One by one he threw the little potato like creatures (that always ate my strawberries) far off into the distance. I know he was mad and all, and this was a tense emotional moment, but I couldn't help but snort a laugh when a gnome squealed as it bounced on it's bum in the grass and shot my moody boyfriend a rather rude hand gesture.

Sirius turned around, holding a gnome in each hand and I saw his eyes soften as I walked toward him. He handed me the less feisty of the two gnomes with a small half smile.

We had those shrubs completely gnome free by lunch. We didn't talk, but we didn't really need to. I know he would literally die before he let anything happen to me, and I'd do the same for him. We both knew that there was no way on earth that I would ever do her bidding. But we also both knew that there was more to Benny's story, and it was becoming more and more evident just how deep he was with the dark side.

Dad made us lunch and called us back into the cottage. We sat awkwardly next to Benny at the table, eating our ham and cheese sandwiches. Benny wasn't in the room when I retold the story earlier.

"Did you get your stuff alright?" Benny asked after a long heavy five minutes of silence.

Sirius and I looked at each other, trying and failing to communicate telepathically.

"No-" Sirius said at the same time I said "Yes-"

Benny raised an eyebrow.

"Sirius got his stuff, but he isn't alright." I clarified.

"Did something happen?" Benny asked concerned. _Hold up, since when did Benny care? Especially about Sirius?_

"His mother threatened me, and I suppose you by extension." I said casually, biting into my sandwich.

Benny looked back with an unreadable expression. "She threatened _you_?" He asked.

I nodded.

Benny ate his sandwich with a bit more ferocity, but otherwise the rest of lunch went on as quietly and awkwardly as before.

Sirius and I went up to my room afterwords and listened to records on _his_ new record player. I was laying on my stomach upon the bed reading a Quidditch Magazine whilst Sirius leaned against the bed nodding along to the music, and Calvin swam his slow little fish dance.

"Snugs. I want to hear _you_ sing, not Paul McCartney." Sirius said as Blackbird began.

"Nope."

"Elizabeth, please?" He asked. He turned to look at me with such desperation, as if he was an inch from death and this was the one thing that would keep him alive.

"Hand me the guitar," I sighed, sitting up. Sirius's face lit up instantly, and he rushed to hand me the guitar and turned off the record. I sat down on the floor with him and began to pluck out the song, eyes firmly fixed on the guitar and _not_ him.

"...Take these broken wings and learn to fly, all your life. You were only waiting for this moment to arrive."

I know this sounds a little cheesy or whatever, but this was a big moment for me. He was the only person I had ever actually sung for... well besides mum.

Once I had finished, I set the guitar aside and peaked my eyes up to see Sirius's lips tilted into a contented smile, gaze soft and fixed on me.

"I love you." He said, "and I love the way you sing and I love the way you make that song sound better than when Paul McCartney sings it." he chuckled.

"I love you." I said. "And I love the way you de-gnome a garden and I love the way you protect my strawberry patch from being nibbled on by those little monsters." I told him with a giggle.

"What are we going to do El?" he sighed, closing his eyes and leaning his head back.

"Do about what? What are you talking about?" I asked.

Sirius straightened up, brows furrowed, eyes looking at me as if it would be the last time he did so. "About us?"

"I have no idea what we're talking about Paddy." I said with a nervous chuckle, tucking my hands in the long sleeves of my jumper. _Why is he looking at me like that? Why do I feel nervous? Why am I scared?_

Sirius sighed. "The only reason she wants to hurt you is because you're dating me."

I definitely did not like where this was going. _Where's my time turner? Let's just back up a few minutes to when you said I sang better than the Beatles._

"W-What's your point Padfoot?" I asked, breath heavy, feeling as if a 10 ton erumpent was on my chest.

"Ellie, I love you, probably more than anything else on the whole damn planet, which is why I can't sit and watch you get hurt because of me."

 _ABORT! ABORT MISSION!_

"El, I don't know how we can still be together after this."

"NO! NO YOU DON'T GET TO SAY THAT! STOP IT!" I yelled furiously, a few stray tears beginning to fall down my cheeks. "STOP IT!"

"Ellie, I'm trying to protect you.."

"I CAN PROTECT MYSELF SIRIUS!"

"Ellie please sit down, please love."

"NO! I WILL NOT JUST SIT HERE AND LISTEN TO YOU JUSTIFY BREAKING MY HEART BY TRYING TO BE ALL HEROIC." I screamed, accio-ing my broom and tearing down the stairs to the field outside.

"ELLIE COME BACK!" he shouted, but it was too late, I was already far from the ground and steadily headed towards somewhere that was not there, not with him.

How could he be so stupid?! How could he think that I was safer apart from him? How could he let _her_ win? This is what she wanted all along. It was never about me becoming a secret death eater, though I'm sure that would be an added bonus. No no no, this was all about Sirius. This was about hitting him where it hurt. Punishing him in the most diabolical way possible. I was both his greatest weakness, and his greatest strength. Walburga knew he would rather break up with me than see me hurt. STUPID STUPID STUPID MUTT! Ugh! It makes me furious thinking about it even now.

I flew high in the sky, not caring that I could get frost bite, not caring about anything but going to see someone who could speak some sense into this situation.


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

I was flying through the sky, tears freezing then flying off my face in little icy chunks then hurling down to the landscape below. After a couple of hours, the sun was setting and I squinted my eyes, scanning the countryside for the familiar welsh Village: specifically, for a little home on a hill flanked by a large forest on one side and a sweet little meandering flock of sheep on the other.

 _"Please be home. Please be home. Please be home."_ I willed as the sweet little farm house came into view. Little puffs of smoke rose up from the chimney, warm light radiated from the old windows. I circled around to see if the light in the back room was on. Not only was it on, but the curtains were opened to reveal a teenager lounging on their bed reading a book.

"Oh thank Merlin." I sighed in relief as I began my descent.

After two and a half hours on a broom, I really should have been able to think of a tactful way of inviting myself into someone's house, but alas I didn't.

 _'Oh hello. Sorry to bother your super awesome family time, carry on! Don't mind me being a big hot mess over here in the corner.' Ugh stupid Ellie._

I landed, legs shaking, not from the cold, but from the emotions I had still yet to contain, and hair springing out of its messy braid with such severity that I just undid the whole thing and let it go wild.

I knocked on the old wooden front door, desperately wiping away the last remnants of tears. I had finally stopped crying, I guess I finally got all the blubbering self pity and rage out my system. Soon the door was opened by a older woman with ashy brown hair, a kind smile, and a very huggable vibe about her.

"Ellie Dear! I didn't know you were coming!" She greeted warmly, ushering me and my cold self in. I left the broom by the doorstep and shuffled into the warm farm house. "Oh my! You're freezing sweetie! Here come by the fire and warm up."

I drifted toward the fire, still trying to figure out a good way of explaining my uninvited visit. Thankfully, a tall lanky boy with scars on his face and ashy brown hair falling into his amber eyes, clad in an oversized jumper, walked out from his room and rushed toward me.

"ELLIE! W-what are you— have you been crying?! Merlin! What happened El? Where's Sirius? I thought he was staying with you?" He asked frantically. His mum, Hope Lupin, wrapped a soft flannel blanket over my shoulders and went to start some tea and, knowing her, to grab me some homemade biscuits.

"H-he tried to break up with me." I squeaked out.

"WHAT?! Why?!"

"I-I couldn't— I just ran away— or I guess _flew_ away, technically— I didn't mean to barge in— Remus I'm so sorry—" I suppose I had more tears left because I started blubbering... _again_.

 _Is this going to become a new thing? Because I'm really not a fan of crying every 8.4 seconds._

"Ellie you are always welcome here! But I don't understand, what happened?!" He asked putting his arm around my shoulders.

"W-Walb-b-burga." I said, teeth chattering, crying into my best friends shoulder. Oh this was even more dramatic than I anticipated. My plan was to get all the tears out during the flight there so I could ask him for advice, but here he was serving as my emotional support werewolf.

Eventually, after a large cup of tea and 2.75 of Hope Lupin's homemade biscuits, I calmed down enough to explain everything to Remus and his mother, whom I had eventually ended up snuggled up next to. She's just so huggable! I couldn't help it! Not that she minded.

"Ellie he's an idiot." Remus said sadly. "An absolutely heroic idiot. But an idiot."

"That's what I'm saying! How am I supposed to reason with him when he's like this!" I exclaimed, getting worked up again.

Hope stroked my hair so lovingly, so motherly, calming me down instantly. "He's got to figure it out for himself sweetie." She said soothingly. "But maybe your father can help. He and Sirius have a real bond don't they?"

"Oh he's obsessed with Wally." Remus smirked, I smiled slightly.

There was a soft tapping of a beak upon the old window of the living room.

I glanced over to see a fluffy tawny owl. "Linda! What are you doing here!" I exclaimed, moving toward my own family's owl to let her in. She cooed and playfully nipped my finger, then stuck out her cute little owl foot so I would take the letter attached.

"Oh, it's for you Rem!" I said handing him the note.

Remus read the letter, then snorted out a laugh, rolling his eyes, shaking his head slowly with a little smile. "That idiot."

"It was from Sirius?" _Of course it's from Sirius._

"He's freaking out." Remus said casually. "But he at least admitted he was an idiot." He shrugged.

I gave Linda some stale owl treat I had in my pocket (which she wasn't all that fond of and pecked me), and sent her back with a note saying where I was and that I'd come back using the floo when I no longer had the urge to break Sirius's nose... and of course telling Sirius that he was an idiot. I then sat back down in my spot next to Mrs. Lupin.

"Rem, where's your dad?" I asked, looking around.

"Oh he's on a work trip. They needed someone to help with a boggart infestation in an old warehouse, kept spooking the muggles." He explained.

I nodded. "I really appreciate you all letting me come over unannounced and all, I promise I'll go back tonight and get out of your hair."

"Nonsense! You stay as long as you need sweetie! Remus can sleep on the couch and you can have the bed, and I'm sure we could scrounge up some night things for you." She said kindly. I think she just really liked having a girl in the house, and as someone who spends a majority of their time around guys, I really can't blame her.

"Thank you Mrs. Hope." I said with a smile, snuggling closer to the huggable older woman. "Remmy, I need a distraction, tell me about _'Dory'_!" I said excitedly.

Remus blushed. "Oh! She is just the sweetest!" Hope gushed. I guess Dory already met the family! They do not waste any time, huh?

"She is." I smirked.

"She came over here with that peculiar cat of hers just before Christmas and brought the best coffee cake I've ever eaten!" Hope exclaimed. Woah. That's a huge compliment. In case you didn't know, Hope Lupin is the world's _best_ baker... or the best one in Wales at least.

Remus looked so proud of his girly-friend's good cooking. "She also um.. mentioned that her um... cousin was erm.. a.."

"A werewolf." Hope chimed in with confidence. Hope and her husband Lyall both knew that _we_ all knew about Remmy's 'furry little problem', but they didn't know about the whole Marauders menagerie thing.

"You're kidding!" I said with a huge smile.

"Nope, and she brought it up all on her own!" Hope cheered.

"Honestly, I think she was trying to make sure we were okay with it." Remus laughed.

"Oooof I bet that was a tough conversation." I joked. _Of_ _course_ they would be okay with it.

"I haven't told her yet..." Remus said softly. "I wanted to wait a while, see where things go, you know..."

"Remus, you do realize that she's become your girlfriend and met your parents in the span of basically two and half weeks. I think you're on target to get hitched by sixth year at this rate." I teased. Remus blushed. Oh he's just such a cutie!

Hope and I took turns trying to make Remus blush more and then eventually the topic drifted back toward Sirius and I.

"Maybe I should come with you? Talk to him, try to explain why it's safer if you're together?"

"I mean you're welcome to come, I'm sure Dad would be thrilled. Oh and you could meet Calvin the fish!"

"That's the one that dances right?"

"Yes Moony. Calvin the dancing fish, as if we have all these other talented fish living under our roof." I commented sarcastically. Though, knowing dad, there was a good chance he would start some Fish circus before we got back this summer.

"Ugh. I was just asking, little miss Sassy Snugs." Remus mocked, sticking his tongue out at me.

"Did you just stick your tongue out at me?! What are we 8?!"

"Says the girl who got children's movies for Christmas!"

"THEY ARE CINIMA CLASSICS LUPIN!"

"Bambi always makes me cry." Mrs Lupin added, fetching us another round of tea with a sly smile. It made James cry too, though maybe for different reasons.

"See! Even Mama Moony agrees with me!" I say pointing to my fellow Disney lover.

Remus was _way_ too much of a mama's boy to refute this.

"So, what's the plan?" He asked, changing the subject.

"I think you should just come with me." I told him with a shrug. "If nothing else, you can keep me sane while I'm cooped up with Pretentious Ben and Sirius the Idiot."

"Well that sounds like a blast..." he smirked.

"Oh shush!" I said with a playful swat.

"So, do you want to leave tonight ooorrrr..."

"Let's go back tomorrow... make him sweat it out a while." I said with a smirk.

So, after a bit more light bickering, we all went off to bed. I felt really bad about stealing Remmy's bed, but not bad enough to decline it. As I laid snuggled under his handmade quilt in the back room of the quaint little farm house, I couldn't help but dread the next morning and the inevitably difficult conversation to come.

I tried very hard to sleep, but I just couldn't. I tossed and turned, dozing off, then jolting awake as I dreamed one weird dream after another. The whole night I was either falling off my broom, or being swallowed by a giant fish, or punching Walburga Black in the nose... I was very upset I woke up after that last one, I wanted to give her a black eye too, and maybe kick her in the shins for good measure.

But, after hours of this unrestful drifting in and out of sleep, I finally awoke with a start after a rather odd dream. It was odd in that it felt so real, as if it was actually happening, or happened already.

In the dream I was in a village full of old houses. I was running along the cobblestone path, either towards or away from something, I'm not sure which it was, but suddenly I came face to face with a man in long dark robes, blood red eyes, and a snake like face. Mr. Snake face didn't seem too keen on my being there and began dueling with me. I suspect he had some anger issues to work through. There was someone else fighting alongside me, but I couldn't remember who it was. The dream ended with me being struck by some brightly colored spell by Mr. Snake face and falling down onto the cold ground as the person beside me screamed my name. It honestly felt so real that I was shocked to find myself in Remus's bed and not on the cobblestone path I was laying on in the dream.

I got up as the sun arose and sleepily made my way toward the tea kettle, like a zombie to brains, or a vampire to blood.

"Oh you're up! I didn't think you were much of a morning person. Sleep well?" Hope asked, making me a cup of tea.

"Not really," I shrugged.

"It's going to be alright dear. I know it will be. I can feel it in my bones." Hope said sincerely.

"You're the best, you know that?" I told her genuinely.

She really was. I often marveled at how much.. well... _hope_ she had. She never gave up hope despite any of the trials flung her way. Perhaps it stemmed from her being a muggle living amongst a world of magic, but she never let seemingly impossible situations intimidate her. I admired the way she never gave up hope that Remus could be anything he wanted to be, despite his lycanthropic condition. Hope was also the closest thing I had to a maternal figure in my life after mum passed, and I was the closest thing she'd ever had to a daughter. I think we were meant to find each other in a strange way.

Hope insisted upon making us breakfast, including some bacon, knowing it was my favorite, and then made sure Remus had everything he needed to spend the night.

"You have your toothbrush?"

"Yes mum..."

"Jumper?"

"Yes."

"Clean underwear?"

Remus blushed slightly. "Yes, yes I have everything. I'll be fine. I'll see you soon mum."

And with that, we were on our way to my home through a flash of green fire.

We arrived back in the fireplace of my living room to see Sirius, snoring loudly, laying asleep on his back upon the couch, still in his clothes and shoes from the day before, with a messily written pro/con list lying upon his chest.

Pros:

 _Ellie would be safe_

Cons:

 _I would miss Ellie and_ _her singing_ _better than Paul McCartney_ _and how feisty she is, and her hugs, and her kisses, and her_ _stupid cute_ _face, and her crazy hair, and the way she always smells like roses, and the way she crinkles her nose all cute when she laughs,_ _and how she always makes me laugh,_ _and how she always eats bacon, and the way she calls me a stupid mutt when I'm being a stupid mutt, and how she can't lie to save her life, and how cute she is as Elephant the cat,_ _and how she dances around when she cleans,_ _and how she always_ _knows how to make me smile when I'm being a moody mutt, and how she_ _can throw a garden gnome, and how she always_ _... (the list went on and on like this for the whole page.)_

"I think it may be easier to convince him than we thought Snugs," Remus whispered as I stifled a giggle.

I could only hope he was right.


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

Remus and I looked at the sleeping Sirius for a long while, though for different reasons. I was stubbornly avoiding confrontation with the love of my life, but Remus was planning a prank on his best friend.

We were both snickering as Sirius snored when Dad walked in, face lighting up as he saw the two of us. "Oh Remus! Has she punched him in the nose yet?" he asked genuinely. _Nope. Not yet._

Dad caught full sight of Sirius as he came down the stairs and had to hold his hand over his mouth not to laugh. Sirius snored loudly and turned to get more comfortable, but apparently found this difficult in his new ballet leotard and fluffy pink tutu. He grumbled a bit and peaked his eyes open to see me pointing a camera toward him, and closed his eyes.

The camera flashed at the same time he realized I was home.

He gracefully leaped to his feet and we all just lost it. It was a welcome change to cry from laughter and not from sadness and frustration.

Sirius looked around completely confused, then caught sight of himself in a mirror by the staircase and screamed like a little girl who's tea party had been ruined. In addition to the ballerina get up, his beautiful hair had been turned bright green and a curly mustache had been drawn upon his face (compliments of yours truly).

That angry pureblood chased Moony around for a while, given that tutus and hair charms were that sandy haired genius's specialty. Eventually he let the poor werewolf go, but only after turning his hair blue and giving him a big bushy wolf's tail.

Sirius undid all of the silly charms and changed into some 'manly clothes' as he referred to them, then came back downstairs, approaching me carefully. Dad went up to introduce Remus to Calvin and catch up on all the hot gossip, or at least that's what I imagine they were doing.

"El... I shouldn't have sprung all that on you like that. I-I'm such an idiot." Sirius said, moving to sit next to me on the couch. He had just showered and smelled _so_ good. Oh good merlin it was really hard to be upset with him when he was this close to me.

"You shouldn't have sprung it on me at all. And yes you are, I've been telling you that for years."

Sirius chuckled sadly. "I still think that us being together isn't the best thing for you."

I slapped him across the face. _He should feel lucky I didn't punch him._

"OW! ELLIE! THAT FREAKING HURT!"

"That was my intention." I said cooly.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" he exclaimed.

 _OH NO HE DID NOT JUST ASK ME THAT._

" _ME_?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH _YOU_?!" I screamed, standing up off the couch. Remember all that stuff I said a second ago about it being hard to be upset with him, yeah I was wrong. "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT! UGHHH! CAN YOU REALLY NOT SEE THAT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THAT HORRIBLE WOMAN WANTS?! AND BESIDES THAT, HOW THE HELL WOULD I BE SAFER WITHOUT YOU AROUND?! HUH!?"

"THEY WOULDN'T HAVE A REASON TO GO AFTER YOU!" He screamed.

I let out a long howl of exasperation, notifying my blue haired werewolfy friend that I was in need of backup.

"Pads, come on. I think we need to talk outside." Remus said, suddenly appearing as if out of no where. _He's so sneaky..._

Sirius looked about ready to yell at his best friend, but went with him. I stayed in the living room absolutely fuming.

Dad came downstairs to see me punching a pillow furiously on the couch muttering curses under my breath. He didn't seem all that surprised.

"Ellie-boo. I'm sorry he's being like this sweetie. If it makes you feel any better I told him that I was going to charge him rent until he gets his head out of his arse." Dad said lovingly as he sat beside me.

I could feel those stupid tears trying to make their reappearance.

"What if he's just- I dunno, using all this stuff with his mum as an excuse... what if he... what if he just actually wants to break up with me?" I asked, a couple of tears falling down my face. "I just don't understand how he could even think of doing something like that if he really loved me." I said, finally dissolving into sobs... again.

"Ellie-boo, you listen to me right now, he does love you. He has since third year sweetie. But he's letting his fear drive him to do something completely insane. I promise this is the last thing he actually wants." Dad said, holding me as I cried. _Third year?!_

"I slapped him." I said sniffling as I began to calm down a bit.

"I had a bet going with Benny that you would punch him... now I owe that little twerp 3 Galleons..." Dad grumbled. "Oh. Um violence is bad. No slapping or hitting." he said awkwardly as he tried to be a good parent.

"You forgot gambling,"I laughed at the same time that Sirius walked back in with Remus, puffy eyed and hair a mess.

They sat down on the love-seat near me and Dad. Sirius looked down at his hands, avoiding eye contact like a guilty dog.

"I think it's best for everyone if you two have someone mediate this conversation." Professor R.J. Lupin said confidently. "Sirius, is there something you want to say?"

"I'm sorry for being a big prat Snugs." Sirius mumbled.

"Good boy. Now, why don't you say what you are afraid will happen if the two of you stay together." Remus said as if he was talking to a child... I mean he wasn't far off.

"I'm afraid that one of my crazy relatives will either kill her, or torture her for information, or..."

"Keep going Padfoot. Just tell them what you told me."

Sirius sighed loudly. "... or she'll realize she's too good for me."

I stared at him in shock.

"See we are making progress here!" Remus exclaimed happily.

"You stupid, _stupid_ mutt." I said shaking my head furiously.

"Ellie. Why don't you explain why what Sirius said was _'stupid'."_ Remus prompted.

"Sirius. If anything, you are too good for me. I am a serial procrastinator with violent tendencies and an addiction to bacon. I use humor as a defense mechanism during serious situations because of my issues with control, anxiety, and insecurity." I spewed out. _Is this what therapy is like?_

"No, but see even all your bad stuff is still good stuff! I'm legitimately messed up El. You just want to punch people in the nose, or make a joke at awkward moments... but I-I... if someone ever tried to hurt you... I think I would try to _kill_ them El — it terrifies me." He said, hands shaking, hunched over in his seat.

"No offense, but that sort of just proves my point that I would be safer with you around..." I said with a small smile. Sirius gave me an annoyed smile back and rolled his eyes. "But you see that's why we work... we balance each other out. You make sure I don't eat too much bacon and I keep you from being a murderer." I said with a smile.

"What the hell..." said the voice of Benny as he walked in from going to the grocery store (judging by the bags in his arms) just as I said that last sentence. He put the groceries on the kitchen counter, then ran back in the room. "Wait! El! Did you punch him?!" I shook my head.

"No, she slapped me..." Sirius grumbled rubbing his cheek.

"Ha! I called it! You owe me three Galleons!" Benny exclaimed pointing to dad.

"Ugh. Benny leave." I said, throwing a throw pillow at him. It took a few tries, but eventually he left.

"The floor is now open for discussion." Remus announced importantly.

"Sirius. You are the Sir Padfoot to my Lady Greengrass. The Bonnie to my Clyde."

"Why am I Bonnie!? I want to be the guy!"

"You're Bonnie. Just deal with it. Now shut up and let me tell you how much I love you you stupid mutt."

"Sorry. Go on."

"Sirius, you have been my best friend since we were 11 years old. When we started dating, I knew good and well what your family was like and what I was getting myself into. I can handle Walburga and death eaters, but I don't know if I can handle not having you in my life. You make me a better person Pads. You make me a happier person. And I know for a fact that I make you a better and happier person too."

Sirius itched his eye in an effort to hide the fact that he was crying... and apparently so did dad. At least it wasn't me this time.

"You definitely make Sirius a better person." Remus said, backing me up. "He was a total git before, and now he's just mostly a git."

"That might be the nicest thing I've ever heard you say about me Moons." Sirius said winking his teary eye.

"I reserve the right to take it back if you break up with Snugs." Remus smirked.

Sirius frowned. Running his hands through his curly hair. I could tell he was close to caving... he just needed a little push.

"Padfoot..." I said gently, waiting for him to look up. "Are you really going to break up with me?" I asked, pouting and possibly the best puppy dog eyes I have ever executed.

"I—I I mean— S-stop making th-that face!" He begged, throwing his hands over his eyes. I swiftly switched spots with Remus so that he was now sitting on the couch with Dad and I was on the loveseat with Sirius. I then gently moved his hands away from his eyes and held them in my own. "E-Ellie this is n-not fair... You know I can't— OH BLOODY HELL! FINE! YOU WIN! I GIVE UP!" He said wrenching his hands alway from mine.

"So you aren't breaking up with me?!" I asked with a big grin.

"No—"

I simultaneously squealed and launched myself on top of him to hug him so tight I doubt he could breathe.

"Mine mine mine! You're all mine!" I mumbled as Sirius chuckled.

I faintly noticed the sound of knocking whist I attacked hugged my boyfriend and peppered his stupid handsome face with kisses. But it wasn't until I felt Sirius tense up that I turned to see who was at the door.

There, standing in the doorway of our old cozy cottage was none other than Regulus Black.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

"Reg?" Sirius said in disbelief while I looked on in shock, releasing him from my clingy clutches. "Reg— w-what are you doing here?"

"Wait. Reg? As in _Regulus_?! _THE_ Regulus?!" Dad exclaimed. "Sweet Merlin! Come in! Please come in!"

Regulus looked hesitant, gripping the broom in his hands a bit tighter, running a hand through his wind swept dark locks, but did eventually walk in.

"What brings you to our humble abode, son?" Dad said genially, leading him to sit in the living room.

"I um— excuse me, have we met before?" He asked Dad with a puzzled look.

"This is Wally." Sirius clarified. "I told him about you.." he said a bit softer.

"I don't believe you... If you really told him about me I don't think he'd be welcoming me in..." Regulus said with a humorless laugh.

"Reg, why are you here?" Sirius asked.

"Because I needed to talk to you." Regulus said with sad tired eyes. "I needed to talk to my Big brother."

My heart hurt for him. He looked like someone who was being crushed from the weight of the world laying upon his shoulders.

I let them know I was going to make some tea and awkwardly sort of demanded Remus to come with me. The two of us left the tension of the living room, shuffling into the kitchen.

"Good Merlin this has been a dramatic 24 hours..." Remus said running his hands through his sandy hair.

"Yeah tell me about it..." I said with an eye roll, filling the kettle with water. "Do you think he ran away?" I whispered.

"I mean he could have, but I didn't see him bring anything besides his broom."

"Rem... if I were to _hypothetically_ try to kidnap him and lock him in a closet until he came to his senses, would you back me up?" I said as I put the kettle on the stove.

He thought about it for a moment, biting his lip. "Yeah. I suppose I would. But if we got caught I'd blame it all on you." He answered with a shrug.

"Ugh.. well good to know I guess." I grumbled. "Can you hear what they're saying?" I whispered.

Remus went just close enough to the opening between the two rooms to hear without being seen, and made a look of deep concentration that he usually reserved for when he was working on his Arithmancy homework.

The kettle was whistling terribly out of tune by time he scuttled back over to report his findings.

"Your dad told him he could stay the night. Reg refused out of politeness a couple of times, but eventually caved. Now they're talking about Sirius and your dad both being blasted off their family trees."

"Of course Dad would invite him... never mind the fact that we only have one guest room..." I said rolling my eyes once again.

"Wait where were you planning to make me sleep? On the floor?!" He asked, appalled.

"No. I was going to kick Sirius out of his bed and make _him_ sleep on the floor. Really Remus? How many times do I have to explain that you are my favorite Marauder?" I said with a playful smile.

"I'm sorry I ever doubted you El." He laughed. "Ready to go back in there and make things awkward?"

"Always ready." I smirked.

So off we trotted back into the room holding a whole tray of tea for the little trio of troubled Purebloods.

"Reg's staying the night," Sirius whispered in my ear as I sat down beside him. "He hasn't really said what happened yet, but I think he got in a disagreement with ol' Mumsy."

I nodded, sipping my tea, trying to follow the conversation which had drifted totally off topic to Quidditch.

"Benny never said you were _The_ Will Greengrass!" Regulus exclaimed. "You're a bloody legend!"

"Legend makes me sound so old..." Dad moaned.

"You _are_ old.." I said under my breath with a cough.

"Excuse me?! I will have you know that I am still in my thirties!"

"Yeah, the _end_ of your thirties..." I said, unsuccessfully masking my amusement at his annoyance.

" _MID_ THIRTIES!" He said all dramatically. "Anyways, what were we talking about Reg?"

"I believe we were talking about how amazing you were as Seeker." Sirius smirked.

"Oh. Well. It's all in the strategy you see.." Dad then went into strenuous detail of all the countless moves and defensive strategies he recommended... after a while I realized something.

"Wait! DAD! STOP!" I demanded, standing up from my seat.

"What is it Ellie-boo?" He asked, clearly startled and bewildered.

"YOU ARE AIDING AND ABETTING THE ENEMY!" I screamed furiously, flourishing my arm out to point at Regulus accusatorially. Regulus looked both shocked and a little hurt. "HE'S THE SLYTHERIN SEEKER DAD! HE'S MY COMPETITION! STOP GIVING HIM TIPS ON HOW TO BEAT ME!" I said jumping up and down for added emphasis.

Regulus blinked, then burst out into a fit of laughter, slowly followed by everyone else... ugh. Once again my attempt to be intimidating has been taken as a joke.

"I was being serious— don't you dare make that stupid joke Padfoot!"

"I thought— I thought you—" Regulus tried to say through his guffaw, "sorry that was just the last thing I expected you to say." He finally managed calming down with a sigh.

"What did you think I was going to say?" I asked a bit perplexed.

"I thought... well I thought you were going to call me a junior death eater or something... you wouldn't be the first."

The mood of the room switched from light-hearted to heavy quicker than blowing out a candle. "Reg... what's the real reason you came here?" Sirius asked.

"I told you already. It was to talk to you..."

"But what about exactly?" Sirius asked, grey eyes burning holes into his brother, probably trying to read his mind or something I suspect.

"Mum and Dad... they um... well they want me to join _him_ Siri. They want me to be a death eater... or they want me to commit to becoming one when I get older at least." Regulus said. A collective chill fell over the room.

Sirius looked over to Dad who gave him a reassuring smile. "Well what do _you_ want Reg?" Sirius asked.

"I-I don't know. That's why I came here. I'm so confused..." he said bowing his head down low and running his hands through his curly hair.

"Well, you do realize that my advice might be a bit biased right?" Sirius said doing an awkward half-chuckle-thing.

"I figured your bias would counteract theirs." Reg mumbled with a shrug, still looking down.

"Fair enough... well I'm not going to lie. I think you should say no and never go back, but ultimately it's up to you."

"It's not as easy as that though. Even if I did say no and run away or whatever, I still have to be around those guys at school... it's like I can't escape. I feel so trapped Siri." He said with a little sniffle.

I instantly felt the sudden need to just hug him and tell him it was going to be okay. Maybe it's the healer spirit within me, but it absolutely broke my heart to see him looking so defeated, so hopeless.

Sirius got up and sat beside him on the loveseat, rubbing his back. "You aren't trapped. If you want out, we can make sure it happens. And if anyone were to give you any trouble, we'd back you up, one-hundred percent." He said soothingly. You know, Remus always gets credit for being the calming and encouraging one of us Marauders, but Sirius has his moments too.

"Really?" Regulus asked. "But, don't your friends all hate me? I'm a Slytherin..."

"Are you kidding me?! The only person that would hate you would be Ellie, but that's only because she's so damn competitive and wouldn't want to fraternize with the enemy."

"Hey! I could make an exception!" I said defensively.

Sirius and Regulus both wore matching smirks.

"You don't have to decide right this minute. Just stay the night and we can talk about it again tomorrow after you've had some time to think." Sirius said, sharing a hopeful smile with Reg who nodded.

"Soooo... Regulus... have you ever seen any Disney movies?" I asked cheekily, trying to liven the mood.

"I um... what?"

"Well I was thinking maybe we have a movie marathon tonight!" I said happily.

Regulus gave me a curious smile, but eventually agreed.

Later that night, we had magicked a giant squishy pallet on the floor of the living room, had popcorn and Pepper Imps at the ready, and were about to begin watching Dumbo, when Benny walked into the living room from the front door completely confused.

"El! Really!? Every time I leave the house, I come home to another one of your stowaways! What the hell?!"

"Hey Ben!" Regulus called from where he was snuggled between Sirius and Remus, munching on some popcorn.

"Reg?! W-What the hell... What are you doing here?!"

"Right now? About to watch some muggle movie about an anatomically incorrect Elephant." He shrugged, stuffing a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

Benny looked like he was in shock.

"Why don't you join us Ben? There's room over by Ellie." Remus said. I wanted so badly to jump across Sirius and Regulus just to smack him upside the head for even suggesting that.

"I-I I'm so confused."

"That seems to be the theme today ol' Benny Boy." Sirius shrugged, " _Accio Peppermint Toads."_

"Alright well, better make up your mind quickly, because I'm starting the movie now whether you're watching or not." I said shortly.

Benny looked exasperatedly between the four of us for a long while, but eventually wandered over next to where I was and watched the movie alongside us.

I had always sort of avoided this particular movie, but for the life of me I couldn't remember why. Storks, baby elephants with adorably gigantic ears... what's not to like?! But then as the mummy Elephant started going berserk, I remembered why.

The part began where the mother Elephant was chained up and reaching out her long nose to the baby before she gets taken away... and I just lost it.

"El?! Ow—Ellie where are you going?!" Sirius asked completely confused as to why I was frantically climbing over the big pallet of people to go upstairs. "Ellie?! Ellie what's wrong love?!" He said trying to catch up to me as I rushed to my room.

"I-I can't — I don't like that part." I said, trying to quickly wipe away the wetness from my eyes.

"What? What part? The mum... ohh... I'm so sorry El! You told me and I just completely forgot!" He said moving to put his arm around my waist. Yes. The mum who gets taken away from their child too soon... it just brought up so many sad memories and feelings... it felt like I had lost my own mum all over again.

"Ughh! I keep crying! I hate this!" I complained, sniffling and wiping away the stray tears traveling down my cheeks.

"Ellie. It's okay to cry. It doesn't make you weak—"

"Says the guy who never cries.." I grumbled.

"I cry more than you realize." He shrugged. "But the point is, you have this big heart that feels all these things a bit more intensely than the average person—"

"Tell me about it," I said with an eye roll.

"— but you don't realize how much of a strength that is El." He said intertwining his fingers with mine. "I love your big heart and how you cry during movies, and how you get super excited for the littlest things, and how you can practically feel other people's hurts and happiness as if it's your own. It's one of the things that made me fall in love with you." He said pressing a sweet soft kiss to my temple.

I looked up with watery eyes to give him a little smile, "I think you're giving Moony a run for his money today." I laughed. "Between me and Reg, you're just full of wisdom."

"Well, you pick up a few things over the years." He chuckled then sighed deeply rubbing my hand with his thumb. "I really don't want Reg to go back..."

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I have a kidnapping plot in the works in case he tries to leave... Moony's even in on it." I said as he laughed softly.

"Do you think he'll stay?" He asked, eyes full of worry.

I gave him a smile and a kiss on the cheek. "I think he might. I mean the fact that he came here at all to talk to you about it shows there's a part of him that doesn't want to go back, right?"

"Yeah, I think you're right." Sirius said with a hopeful smile. "But keep that kidnapping thing on the back burner just in case."


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

The morning after our movie marathon, I awoke in my own bed, which I found odd considering the fact that I had fallen asleep downstairs. After a long staring match with Calvin, I heaved myself out of the squishy bed, slipped on some comfy slippers and my robe, then let my nose lead me toward the fragrance of bacon flowing up from downstairs.

Even in my morning stupor, I could tell something was amiss the second I set foot in the kitchen. Everyone was tense: Remus's brows were furrowed as he flipped through the Daily Prophet absently; Sirius's eyes were bloodshot, hair awry; Benny's face was absent of any emotion, not even a hint of loathing to be found when he looked up at me; and even Wally 'Morning Person' Greengrass was looking more downcast than I had seen in ages.

"Did I miss something?" I croaked.

Sirius and Remus did that annoying thing were they looked at each other knowingly.

"Regulus left." Remus informed me in a tired voice.

"What do you mean he left?!"

Sirius sighed. "He left early this morning."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM?!" I roared, banging my little fist on the table with a thud. _We had a perfectly good kidnapping plan all in place, how could he just let him waltz out of here?_

I instantly regretted saying anything as Sirius looked like he was on the verge of tears.

"I tried." is all he said.

"W-why? Why would he leave? He was so happy here... we would've looked out for him..." I said in a small voice, slumping down into a seat at the table, munching on the bacon Dad had given me.

Benny scoffed.

My blue eyes flashed in anger toward that prat. "Do you have something to say Benny?" I spat, jaw clinched, hands balled up into little angry fists.

Benny looked rather pleased with my anger. "Only that I think he made the right choice."

 _"Excuse me?"_ I asked incredulously. "You think he had the right idea going off to work for a gang of murderers?"

"That's just some of the more radical ones," he said dismissively. "It's not like they're all like that."

Everyone in the room just stared at him blankly. How could he possibly be saying all this? Did he really believe this rubbish? Surely he was only trying to annoy me.

But, as I looked into his face that looked rather like Dads, besides being a bazillion times more punchable, I realized he was being honest. He really thought that there could be good Death Eaters.

I turned to Dad who looked hurt and confused. "Dad. I'm about to beat some sense into Benny." I said calmly, catching my prat of a brother wince slightly at my words out of the corner of my eye. "Just thought I'd give you a warning."

Dad seemed lost in his own thoughts and hardly aware that I'd said anything.

The very next moment, I flung myself over the table knocking over a cup of pumpkin juice onto Remus, sending various breakfast sides sliding off the table with a loud clanking. I landed on top of Benny, tipping us both over in his chair with a heavy, and somewhat painful, _thud_.

I balled up my fist, just the way he taught me when I was thirteen and he was worried boys would try to hit on me, then let my blind fury guide my hand toward his face. I didn't make it however— Benny's hand's caught hold of my wrists and he quickly pulled me to the ground pinning me against the floor. I head butted him, catching him off guard, and flipped him over, winding up once again and landing a punch on the floor where his face should have been, if he hadn't jerked out of the way at the last second that is.

Everyone was a little too shocked to react initially, but eventually, Sirius plucked me straight up off of my brother, just as I was going in for another punch, and threw me over his shoulder with ease.

"Put me down! Put me DOWN! LET ME PUNCH SOME SENSE INTO HIM!" I growled, whacking him on the back with blind rage, but taking a short moment to appreciate his rear end… _No Ellie! Stop thinking of how hot he is! You are angry!_

Sirius ignored my protests and carried me all the way up to my room, plopping me onto the bed. "Ellie. Stop." he said in a defeated voice.

"But you heard what he said—"

"I heard him, love." he said softly. "But I can't let you… I can't let you push your brother away like I did with Regulus…"

"But— But he— he defended Death Eaters Sirius!" I cried out incredulously. "He probably wants to be one!"

Sirius made an uncomfortable face, wringing his hands together.

"What aren't you telling me?" I asked. "Sirius. What aren't you telling me?!"

"Well… I had a long talk with Regulus last night after I carried you to bed," _So that's how I got back up there…_ "and he um… well he told me some stuff about Benny."

"What kind of stuff about Benny?" I asked through gritted teeth.

Sirius sighed. "He said Benny already um… he already committed to being a erm… well to being a Death Eater… But not officially until he's 17."

It was as if the wind had been knocked out of me. "B-but that's so soon— his birthday is in May—" I wheezed out.

"I know… but you still have time to change his mind Ellie! But you're never going to do that if you keep trying to punch the living daylights out of him!"

"But I like punching him…" I said with a little smirk.

Sirius smirked back. "Yes, he does have a rather punchable face." he chuckled softly.

"So, what else did Regulus say? He left… but does that mean he's still going to side with you-know-who?" I asked softly, tentatively. I knew Sirius didn't want to talk about this, but I needed to know…

Sirius tensed as he moved closer to me. "He said he had to go home since he told mother he was going to visit our Uncle Alphard at his house… but he wouldn't give an answer on if he was going to join or not…"

My face lit up. There was still hope. There was still a chance that we could save him, arguably a better chance than I had with Benny.

"Thats good though, right?! Not as good as if he stayed here, but he still could join our side, right?"

Sirius shrugged, frowning. "Yeah, I mean… I guess so."

"Sirius," I said softly, fingers guiding him by the chin to face me. I looked straight into his bright grey eyes, currently looking a bit more like little storm clouds than usual. "Sirius, you can't give up on him. You love him, he's your brother — you have to try to save him." I said. "He's just a boy —a confused boy… You can't let those idiot Death Eater's have him— you can't let them corrupt him when there's still good left in him… not without a fight."

As I said the words, I realized I wasn't really talking about Regulus at all… I was talking about Benny. Benny, my stupid annoying brother. The same stupid annoying brother who, when I was little, did silly sock puppet plays for me when I was sick. The same idiotic brother who exterminated the imaginary monsters under my bed, and who would stay by my side all night when I had nightmares, telling me everything would be okay. The brother who held me as I cried when I found out Mum had died, and promised me he would always protect me.

But, it was my turn to protect him.

I couldn't let him fall.

I _wouldn't_.

It was in this moment that I remembered Mum's words to me in her letter: ' _Yo_ _ur life is defined by the love you give to others, even when loving them seems impossible_

But what did loving Benny look like? How do you love someone who thinks that the wrong choice is the right one?

"We can't let him make the wrong choice, Sirius… We have to save him." I said softly, clutching his hand in mine.

Sirius looked at me, brushing the messy hair from my face. I don't know how I could be so sure, but in that moment I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he understood exactly what I meant. "We will. We will save them both, love."


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28- Yes We. Yes Plans.**

There I was, the morning of January 2nd, 1976, content and untroubled, cozy and drooling in my soft, cushy bed, with a few stubborn flecks of glitter still stuck to my skin and hair. I was the definition of peaceful. You know those people who make commercials for mattresses and sleep medication? Yeah, those guys would have envied the serenity and restfulness of the outrageously perfect slumber I was taking part in at that very moment.

So of course someone _had_ to screw it all up.

"WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP SNUGGLES!"

"Go away." I grumbled hiding my head under my pillow like any sane person should when coming into contact with a bothersome voice such as the one I just experienced.

"IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY YOU BEAUTIFUL CAT!" the voice sang in spite of my grumbling.

"Great. Now go away."

The unusually annoying intruder (whom my brain figured was Sirius) must have found this response unsatisfactory because he proceeded to bounce on my bed making me sea sick. Just what every gal wants for their birthday...

"Leave me alone!" I moaned, now resorting to blindly brandishing my pillow around as a weapon in the hopes of thwacking my intruder into silence.

It didn't work. In fact, it had the opposite effect.

 _Lovely_.

"I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN _WEEKS_ AND _THIS_ IS HOW YOU TREAT ME?! I AM WOUNDED GREENGRASS! WOUNDED I SAY!"

I literally saw Sirius every day, I don't know why he would be ' _wounded_ ' by me trying to sleep in unless it was because my pillow thwack actually hit its mark... in which case I felt zero remorse.

I finally humored the intruder and peaked open a single blue eye. With this eye, I first caught a glimpse of Calvin looking equally annoyed by the intruder. Smart fish. Second, I saw glitter and confetti all over my floor—leftover from our little new year's festivities... and by festivities I mean Sirius and I combatively throwing confetti and glitter at each other in an effort to see who had the most stuck in their hair come 1976 (spoiler alert: Sirius did). Finally, my eye settled on the grin of a gangly, bespectacled boy with obnoxiously messy black hair wearing a violently pink jumper for some unknown reason.

"James?" I croaked, rubbing the sleep out of my now bewildered eyes. This couldn't be right... James was supposed to be in Romania visiting his second cousin twice removed, or his long lost half-dragon brother-in-law, or dog walker or something, not in my freaking bedroom! "Why are you _here_? At my _house_? In my _room_?!" I thought about asking why his jumper was such a hostile shade of pink, but knew Prongsy well enough to know I wouldn't like the answer.

"Oh you know, thought I'd just pop by and see what Calvin's been up too..." he said casually.

I shot an accusatory look at my fishy companion. "Did you know about this?" He blew a few bubbles and looked a little offended that I would even think such a thing... but he was a pretty good liar... sooo...

"GOOD MERLIN ELLIE! I came to surprise you on your birthday!" James whined bouncing on the bed again, sending my stupid curly hair springing all over my face, no doubt making me look more and more like a wild animal and less like a birthday girl. "Now up! Get up! We have _plans_!"

" _We_?" I asked, reaching for a big hoodie Sirius left under my bed during the heat of our confetti glitter fight. " _Plans_?"

James grinned mischievously. "Yes _we_. Yes _plans._ Now get ready and come downstairs!" he demanded, dramatically storming out of the room in his fuchsia jumper—side note, I swear that thing was so bright it burned a hole in my retinas.

Curiosity, and curiosity alone, drove me out of my cozy comfy bed to make myself look less like a mountain troll with a head cold and more like a fully functioning humanoid.

Once I'd successfully cleaned and dressed myself in those jeans that made me look like I actually possessed curves and a comfy blue jumper I stole from Sirius, I made my way downstairs to finally see who this mysterious ' _we_ ' was and what these alleged ' _plans_ ' were.

"James, I'm sorry I was in a bad mood before—I'd really like a hug now..." I called out to what seemed to be an empty house. "Jamesie? Padfoot? Dad? Benny-boo? Anyone!?" I called out pathetically into the nothingness of our abandoned cottage.

 _I swear to Merlin if they jump out from behind a couch or something I'm going to—_

"SURPRISE!" yelled a wide variety of people whom I call my friends.

"AGHHH!" I may or may not have punched the first person I saw in the shoulder. "Oh no... sorry Frank..."

Frank laughed it off, but I could tell he was just trying to act tough for Alice.

"I told you this would happen, Potter!" Lily complained loudly in a bossy voice. "I told you that if we sneaked up on her it would be fists flying!"

"LILY?!" I squealed. "Is that you I hear, my favorite little Potter hating ginger?!" I began to run toward the sound of her voice. I hadn't seen her all break and I was having some major Lily withdrawals.

"How many Potter hating gingers do you know, Snugs?!" James exclaimed incredulously. "And there is no way she is getting a hug before me!"

One second I was sprinting toward my auburn haired, Swedish fish loving best friend as if I was in a cheesy romance movie (You know the part I'm talking about. The one where they run in slow motion, arms out stretched toward their one true love through a field or right before they board an airplane, with the dramatic cinematic music swelling in the background.), and the next I was having the life squeezed out of me by a gangly boy who thought it would be a good idea to twirl me around in the air against my will for good measure. "I missed you so much, Snuggles!"

"Can't—Breathe—"

"Prongs! I swear if you break my girlfriend—" I heard Sirius warn.

James set me back down on the ground immediately. "I would _never_!" he said in mock offense.

"Okay, move it! I need an Ellie hug right meow!" Lily said, elbowing through the little group of people like the feisty ginger she was so that we could salvage what was left of our epic reunion.

One by one I hugged and laughed and greeted my surprise guests: Sirius (duh), Remus, Dorcas, Alice, Frank, James, Lily, and of course my dad and Benny...

Honestly, I was a little surprised to find that Benny was in attendance. Ever since Regulus left, things had been more strained between us than usual. I was trying, for his sake, to overlook his obviously flawed sense of morality in an effort to win him back over from the dark side, but it wasn't exactly working out as well as I'd hoped.

He kept disappearing to allegedly hang out with 'friends', but something about his shifty demeanor (and the fact that he was more punchable than he was likable) made me suspect that he was up to something more sinister than game night at the Lestrange's.

"Glad you could grace us with your presence Benny-boo..." I teased, giving him a bone crushing hug against his will. See! I'm actually hugging my brother, this is progress!

Benny rolled his eyes and attempted not to smile at my ridiculous new nickname for him. "Happy birthday, El."

"Alrighty, so everyone's here! Are we ready to go?!" Dad asked, clapping his hands together importantly.

"Go? We're going somewhere?" I asked, feeling quite out of the loop, looking around the room like a lost puppy.

"Of course we're going somewhere!" Alice laughed.

"Alright, lets see..." Dad muttered to himself. "How do we want to do this..."

"I can take a few people in my parents' car!" Frank suggested happily. See, this is why I like Frank. I punch him and he's still such a little sweetheart.

"Cars! Of course!" Dad cheered, as if he just remembered that those nifty muggle inventions existed... though that may not have been too off the mark. "Alright! Benny and I can take two people and... Frank you take Alice and two others—"

"I call Wally!" James said obnoxiously, throwing his hand in the air.

"Erm... we'll go with Frank..." Remus said, looking down to his _GIRLFRIEND_ Dorcas with her rosy cheeks and glossy brown hair. I was quite excited that he thought to invite her. I was very much looking forward to planning their future wedding and baby names from afar.

"B-but what about me and Sirius?! And Lily?" I asked.

James smirked, pushing up his glasses as he lopped an arm over the huffy Potter hating ginger's shoulders. "Evans can ride with me." he said, moving to speak very close to her ear.

I watched as Lily's face turned a little pink. "I think I'd rather walk."

"But you could get attacked by some lunatic hobo on the way!" James said in exasperation.

"I'll take my chances..." she smirked, shoving his arm off of her. "A hobo attack is honestly preferable to being stuck in a car with you for any length of time..."

"Aw come on, Evans! I'm not _that_ bad!" James complained, clearly annoyed.

"Oh, you are." Remus smirked.

"Et tu, Brute?"

"Stop quoting Shakespeare like you've actually read it, Potter!" Lily snapped.

"For your information I _have_ read Shakespeare, _Evans_!" James said, face turning a little red in his frustration, hands on his hips. "Don't you roll your eyes at me you red headed minx!"

I wandered over to Sirius at this point because they were getting to be too much for even me to handle, and wrapped my arms around his waist, snuggling my head into his warm chest.

"So... how are _we_ getting to this mystery location?" I mumbled through my prolonged hug, glancing up at his stupid handsome face.

Sirius grinned. "You'll see."

* * *

"Sirius. I don't know about this… I mean you haven't been able to drive it that much..." I said as he re-secured my pink cat ear helmet and righted my leather jacket for literally the fifth time that morning.

"I've driven it plenty of times, Ellie!"

"Yeah... but I mean... have you actually driven with other cars around?" I asked. Sure, Mr. Stupid Handsome had taken his motorbike out for a twirl around the village a few times, but the worst traffic he had run into thus far was just a stubborn rainbow sheep over by Xenophilius Lovegood's house.

"Well no... but I've been practicing around Xeno's sheep!"

I knew those words were suppose to bring me comfort, but they only made me more of a nervous wreck.

"Padfoot... you know that's not exactly helping your case..."

Sirius put his hands on my shoulders and gave me a very serious Sirius look. "Ellie. I love you more than anything in the whole flipping world and I would literally go to Azkaban before I let someone hurt you. Do you really think I would drive you around on this thing if I thought it would put you in danger in any way?"

"Well, no. But—"

"Nope! No buts— unless it is yours sitting down on the bike." he smirked.

I rolled my eyes and eventually took my chances by sitting behind him on the motorbike... arms wrapping around his waist to hold on for dear life.

As it happened, Sirius was a very good motorcyclist... besides the whole speeding thing. However, I did make a mental note to never let him get on that thing alone with James. There was a very good chance they would end up in a police chase.

After a while we all made it to some quaint little village just outside of town. It was absolutely adorable with twinkling lights still up from the holidays and shops all around. I didn't have as much time as I would have have liked to take in my surroundings before I was being pulled into a little ice cream parlor where the others had congregated.

"Finally! Geez Padfoot! What took you so long!" Prongs said loudly from where he stood beside Remus and Lily.

"Yeah... not going to lie... My grandmother drives faster than you did, Sirius... and she's blind." Lily sniggered as Alice let out a single loud laugh.

Sirius looked utterly exasperated and threw his hands in the air while I sheepishly tried to slip out of view. "It's not _my_ fault! Ellie freaked out every time I went too fast!" he complained.

Okay, maybe he hadn't actually been speeding. But in my defense, that was the first time I'd been on a motorbike and I was a little nervous.

"No matter! You're all here now!" Dad said with a big dorky smile as he handed out some bits of parchment and Polaroid cameras. "Alright so first up is the scavenger hunt! You each have to find the items listed as quick as you can and meet back here where we will have cake and ice cream before we go iceskating! Now, we're doing this in pairs—" he said, looking around at the group deep in thought. "Alice and Frank—Ellie-boo and Sirius—Remus and Dorcas—Me and Benny—and... James and Lily—"

" _What_?!" Lily squeaked, subtly scooting away from a smugly smiling James. "No! No, no, no! Not happening! Nope!"

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." James smirked as Lily glowered.

Dad ignored them and continued.

"—now, the first pair finished gets... erm..." he leaned over to whisper to Benny-boo. "What do the winners get again?"

"The pride of a job well done?" Benny said in a bored tone. Dad shot him a look and my stupid brother rolled his eyes. "They get a gift certificate to Honeydukes." he sighed.

"Right. That. So... um. Go!"

We all kind of looked at each other in confusion for a minute before sprinting out of the ice-cream shop at top speed. I watched as Lily spared one last look of desperation toward me before being dragged toward a particularly hairy man across the road. Sirius and I ran straight toward a nearby frozen fountain, and looked over the list of things we had to get a picture of/with.

"Oh, this one says we have to get a picture of people kissing…. we can take care of that one right now!" Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows.

I immediately picked up the camera with one hand and pulled him toward me with the other, catching him a little off guard when I landed a particularly passionate kiss on him.

I pulled back and saw him blushing and I swear it was the cutest freaking thing I've ever seen in my whole life! "Aww! You're cheeks are all red!" I giggled as I poked said red cheek.

Sirius grinned despite himself. "Okay, okay… so that one's down… what's next?"

* * *

After successfully taking photos with a duck, a bearded man, a cat (heh heh it was me), and a some muggle lady wearing a red dress (her name was Maggie, and apparently she was a mildly famous actress, but she wasn't in any Disney movies so I therefore lost interest in remembering the details of her life story and surname), we made our way to try to take a picture with Lily and James while they weren't looking. We were just passing a quaint little bakery when we noticed someone lurking in the shadows of a nearby alleyway.

"Sirius… did you see that?" I hissed, nodding toward the alleyway.

Sirius's jaw clenched and he pulled me closer. "I did." he said in a low voice.

"Was that— was that who I think it was?" I squeaked.

"Yes. I think it was... Come on, let's get back to the others before they—"

 _BANG!_

 _CRACK!_

That's when all hell broke loose.

All of a sudden people were screaming hysterically and running every which way around the crowded town square. A gigantic Christmas tree still up from the holidays was in flames, smoke billowing high up in the air, the windows to a nearby flower shop shattered, the ice cream parlor was on fire, a sweet muggle family was strung up by their ankles hanging in the air, and most terrifying of all… in the sky hung a big ugly glittering green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth— the dark mark.

Immediately we ran to try to find the others, wands in hand.

"LILY! DAD! ALICE!" I shouted desperately.

"PRONGS! MOONY!" Sirius boomed.

Everywhere I looked there were people crying and screaming and pushing past us in order to get away. It was utter and complete chaos.

"YOU STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" I heard James scream. Sirius and I instantly ran toward him and saw James in his fuchsia jumper standing protectively in front of Lily as three Death Eaters raised their wands surrounding them, obviously eyeing Lily.

A horrible cackle rang through the streets over the sounds of screaming and I saw one of the Death Eaters with wild dark hair pull off her mask. "Aw, wittle Pottah protecting his mudblood girlfriend?"

Despite the mortal peril they were in, I was not surprised in the least when I heard Lily indignantly scream, "I AM _NOT_ HIS GIRLFRIEND."

Sirius growled and stormed toward them with his wand raised, shooting a disarming spell that missed its mark. "Do you really have nothing better to do than stalk me, cousin Bella?" he asked with a humorless laugh, eyes manic and voice dangerous.

"GO AWAY YOU TOAD!" I growled ferociously.

She only cackled louder.

"Oh so this is the little blood-traitor whore you've been shacking up with!" Bellatrix said in sadistic amusement. I wanted nothing more than to punch her in the freaking face— I guess Sirius could tell since he grabbed my arm to keep me from charging after her. "She's a cute little thing isn't she!" she said mockingly. "Too bad she'll be dead soon…" she sighed. "Take her!"

A split second later, before I even could tell what was going on, I felt myself being ripped out of Sirius's grip, I could hear him screaming, and suddenly the world went black. It was like I was being forced through a very tight rubber tube.

A moment later I landed next to a rather smelly fellow in what seemed to be the gothic inspired sitting room of a large home…. and I was royally pissed.

Logically, I really should have been more upset about being kidnapped by Death Eaters on account of the whole ominous, 'she'll be dead soon' thing, but what really got me mad was the fact that I would be missing out on my freaking birthday party! We were going to go ice skating dammit!

"REALLY?!" I screamed in annoyance to no one in particular, startling the tall and muscular Death Eater who grabbed me, momentarily marveling at how ugly his thin, black mustache was. "IT JUST HAD TO BE TODAY OF ALL FREAKING DAYS!?"

The Death Eater seemed a little shaken and magically tied me to a rather uncomfortable chair without saying anything.

I sighed. "Look, Mr. Scary Death Eater dude—"

"Um… it's erm…Walden—"

"Look, Walden… I dunno if anyone told you, but it's actually my birthday today." I said calmly from where I was now tied up in a multitude of ropes.

Walden shuffled uncomfortably. "I-I didn't know—"

"No, no. It's okay. I don't blame you, you were only following orders. But since it's my birthday and you sort of ruined my party… do you think I could at least get a more comfortable chair to die in?"

"I dunno…" he said fidgeting with is decorative death eater mask within his hands.

I sighed, then looked up at him with a pair of pitiful puppy dog eyes. They weren't my best, but they served their purpose.

"Ugh! Fine, just hang on a second." he grumbled moving to drag a more comfortable arm chair over to where I was tied up. "I have to untie you— but you just walk over and sit in the other chair, okay? No funny business!"

"Walden! We have a good thing going here! Why would I mess that up?" I said innocently.

Walden fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

As soon as I was free, I punched him straight in the face, knocking him out instantly. "Sorry Walden…" I said apologetically as I shoved his wand into the dirt of a potted plant. I heard voices coming closer and panicked. Without even thinking, I turned into Snugs the cat and darted beneath a nearby couch.

"WHERE IS SHE!" screamed a very angry Bellatrix Lestrange once she realized I was missing.

Honestly, I think I could have stayed there under that ugly couch, undetected for ages… if I hadn't had the sudden urge to cough up a hairball that is…

I was just about finished heaving up said hairball when I heard a terrifying, sickly sweet voice from behind me say, "Well, well, well… You are just full of surprises, aren't you?"


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

I will admit, coughing up a hair ball while in my current predicament was inopportune. But in my defense, it wasn't like it was something I could particularly help! So there I was, listening to that old dilapidated hawk of a woman go on about how 'very intriguing' I was, while simultaneously trying to think up a way to get the hell out of the Lestrange's house.

It was obvious, from the way she was speaking to me that she thought _I_ was the cat, however, it was really no more than an educated guess seeing as there were no witnesses. Not even the poor chap passed out on the floor saw me transform.

Speaking of the poor chap (whom I'd just duped into thinking he could get away with kidnapping me and go on as pals), thanks to the ever so erratic Bellatrix, Mr. Gullible Death Eater Walden was now up and about, sporting a fairly large welp on his head. My healer-centric mind instantly recognized that a bit of murtlap essence would cure the swelling, but given the current state of affairs, I kept the observation to myself.

Once fully conscious, poor Walden began bumbling around looking for his wand (still hidden in the potted plant) saying, "She punched me... She punched me..." over and over as if he could hardly believe it. "She—she _punched_ me. Me! She punched _me_!"

"Oh get it together you idiot!" Bellatrix hissed.

" _She_ punched me—"

Walburga made a face of irritation and rose from where she was observing me, wand in hand. "We are well aware of your incompetence, dear. No need to continue informing us." she said through her teeth in that saccharine sweet, scathing voice she often used.

Taking advantage of the dilapidated hawk's momentary distraction by way of poor, probably concussed Walden, I instantly and silently ran out from under the couch and out the door of the sitting room.

I don't know where I was really planning to go; I didn't have a plan beyond getting the hell away from those crazies. Once I got my bearings, I decided that I would try to find a door out. I knew there was a good chance that they'd set wards on the outside to keep me from popping out the front door, but it was still worth a try. At the very least, I figured I could hide away long enough to try to find an owl to send word of where I was or better yet, find some floo powder to get home before Sirius had a total melt down.

Sirius… Poor, sweet Sirius… My mind instantly flashed to the look of horror on his face as I was ripped out of his arms, his screams of anguish reverberating in my mind like some sort of sick broken record. I had to get away. I had to tell him I was okay.

I eventually found myself down some random hallway and had managed to put a sizable distance between me and my kidnappers, but I could still hear Walburga complaining loudly about the other two's incompetence and knew it was only a matter of time before they realized I'd snuck away.

Suddenly, I saw a light at the end of the hallway. A door had been opened and sunlight poured through the drab January sky like a beacon of hope!

My little paws propelled me further and further, faster and faster as I chased after my means of escape— until suddenly, I ran into someone's legs.

"What the hell... Elephant? What're you doing here?" a familiar voice said kindly, picking me up into his arms, and stroking my fur.

 _Great. Just great. I'm now forever going to be known as 'Elephant the cat'._

"You're a long way from home..." the familiar voice said sadly. I looked up and saw two grey eyes looking down at me with quiet concern.

He began to walk and I watched the light of the open door grow fainter and fainter in the distance. It took a moment to really put it together, but eventually I realized that _Regulus_ had just found me. Regulus was holding me. Regulus was now carrying me back to the loonies who kidnapped me...

Nope. This could not be happening.

"Woah! Calm down! You're alright— stop squirming, Elephant!"

"WHERE IS SHE!?" screeched Bellatrix from just out of view.

Regulus and I both flinched. That psycho's voice made my fur stand up on end and I began squirming even more, desperate to get away.

"Someone's in a bad mood..." Regulus muttered under his breath as he entered the room I had just worked so hard to leave— I'm still not sure if he was referring to me or his cousin, but it would be safe to say he meant both.

"Hello, Mother... Is something wrong?" he asked politely upon entering the room, petting my fur casually in order to calm me.

Walburga rounded to face him, and her angry face morphed into a terrifyingly happy one. Never a good sign.

"Regulus, my darling... I see you've found Elizabeth..." she said in a too sweet voice.

I looked up at Regulus (who seemed worried for his mother's sanity) with big pleading blue eyes, praying that he would tell her I was only a cat.

"Her name's Elephant..." he said hesitantly, holding me closer, afraid to correct his mother.

"SHE'S AN ANIMAGUS!" Bellatrix cried out savagely, pointing at me accusatorially.

Regulus looked down at me in confusion, studying my little feline features closely, probably trying to look for some sign that what she said was true... Finally a spark of recognition lit within his eyes— I could practically see him putting the pieces together, remembering back to the first time he saw me after Sirius got hurt by Benny. Then he looked up.

My stomach churched in anxiety as I waited for him to speak. I never thought Regulus was the type to sell someone out, but he _was_ a Slytherin—self preservation was in his nature... I braced myself for the worst.

"She's my cat." he lied, much to my surprise. "Well, she was Sirius's cat, but he left her behind when he ran away..."

"Sirius didn't have a cat!" Walburga spat fiercely, spittle flying from her mouth with the ferocity of her delivery. " _You_ do not have a cat— Your father's—"

"Yes, _allergic_ —I know—but that's the reason Sirius got her in the first place, you see—to bug you all..." he shrugged. "But she's actually really sweet... and when he left, I didn't have the heart to get rid of her, not right after she'd been abandoned like that... So I kept her locked away in my room so it wouldn't bother father and planned to find her a new home when I got back to school." Regulus explained calmly. "When we came to visit, I brought her with me and had her locked away in my room upstairs... but she must've got out." he said softly, petting me again. "I know I should have told you though and I'm really sorry—"

He was an excellent liar. Seriously, he nearly had _me_ convinced that I was his cat.

"If you are lying Regulus— I swear I'll—!"

"Mother, I wouldn't lie to your face like that... I'm not _Sirius_." he said sounding hurt that she would insinuate such a thing. "Now, if it's Elizabeth you're looking for, I think I saw someone outside— I just figured it was one of Bella's friends though."

Walburga clenched her jaw and shot a look to Bellatrix and simply said, "Go." nodding toward the door.

A mass of dark, unruly curly hair huffed passed us, and Regulus held me closer. "Mother... Is it alright if I bring her back upstairs, now? I think she's a little frightened from all the commotion..."

Walburga sat down not the couch wearily, shooing him off distractedly, saying, "Yes, fine— go—just go—" at the same time Walden began saying, "She _punched_ me," again.

Within seconds Regulus was off, walking out of the room calmly until he was out of sight, then began sprinting full out, leaping up the stairs two at a time.

Eventually we made it to the third floor and entered what I supposed was the room he was staying in— it was very neat, decorated in the same disturbing gothic style as the room downstairs, a large fireplace was situated in the center of the room with an intricate mantle, and a broom was leaned against the wall near a large window framed by some ugly maroon curtains.

He set me down on the big bed next to some quidditch magazines, then closed the door and muttered a few spells.

"Okay, no one will hear us now... and I put a permanent sticking charm on the door frame, so they shouldn't be able to get in..." he said, a little out of breath. "Unless they blast through the door..." he frowned, analyzing the door, probably trying to calculate the likelihood of that actually happening. "Dear Merlin, I hope you're actually Ellie, or else I've just adopted a cat... I don't even really like cats— no offense." he added, looking over his shoulder and finding me, sitting on his bed, still in cat form.

"Merlin... _please_ be Ellie..." he begged desperately.

I was hesitant to reveal the fact that I was an illegal and unregistered animagus, but considering the fact that he'd just gone through all the effort of lying and saving me, I figured Regulus Black was worthy enough to be entrusted with my secret.

"Oh thank goodness!" he sighed as I transformed back into human form. "Are you okay?! What happened?!" he asked in a rush.

"Well, aside from the fact that your psychotic family just kidnapped me _at my birthday party_ andthreatened to kill me, I'd say I'm doing fine—" I said bitterly, now up and searching his room for some floo power. In hindsight, I really should have been more appreciative of him basically saving my life, but I was still a _smidgen_ pissed about missing out on my sweet sixteen—again, _WE WERE GOING ICE SKATING, DAMMIT!_

Regulus groaned and flopped backward on the bed, running his hands over his face. "Ugh... They weren't going to kill you, Ellie."

I laughed humorlessly, lifting up an tacky green vase and peering inside. "Tell that to your cousin—"

"Ellie, they wouldn't have—"

I semi-aggressively placed the apparently empty vase back on the fireplace mantel so that it wobbled forebodingly as I said, "No! Regulus, that lunatic cousin of yours literally stood right in front of Sirius and I and said she was going to kill me!"

Were all the members of the Black family this thick headed?

"No! Ellie, listen to me! They wouldn't have— they _can't_! Bella was just trying to wind Sirius up— they're supposed to be _recruiting_ you!"

I nearly laughed again. "Well that's a fruitless endeavor if there ever were one." I scoffed, checking behind a painting, again on the search for the ever illusive floo powder. "Why would they want me anyway?!"

"Well you're a pureblood—"

"Bloodtraitor." I corrected.

"Whatever— you're still pureblood and they need someone who—"

Just then, a loud clambering commotion rose up from the stairs. It seemed dear sweet psychotic Bellatrix finally figured out I wasn't out frolicking in her garden as she screeched a steady (and rather impressive) stream of expletives.

"Reg... look. I'd love to chat about all this and—you know—process my trauma or whatever—but I _really_ need to get back home before Sirius and Dad just totally freak out." I said in a rush, heart beating faster and faster the closer Bellatrix's voice grew.

He was reluctant, but eventually he arose from the bed and began digging through some drawer, muttering "Right… yeah… you're right... priorities... we can talk later, I guess... _dammit_ , where is it... ah! Here!"

He then handed me a small, gaudy beaded drawstring bag, that in all honesty looked like something my aunt Gerdy would have gotten me for Christmas. "Erm... thanks..." I said awkwardly.

"It's floo powder. I haven't tried this one out yet... but the fireplace _should_ be connected to the network—"

"UGH! WHERE IS SHE?!" Bellatrix screeched from down the hall.

I looked at the door, and suddenly the prospect of her blasting through didn't seem all that far fetched.

"Elli—go! Please, just go! She won't kill you, but she might still hurt you—please just go!" he hissed, worry marring his youthful face as he practically shoved me into the fireplace.

I looked down at the bag then up at him, then glanced over at the door as if transfixed. I knew I needed to leave—I knew I was arguably in more danger than before, but still I couldn't bring myself to leave.

"Ellie, please! Please go! She's getting closer—"

"No." I said resolutely.

"What the hell!? Ellie, you said so yourself, you need to get back home— You can't take her on! You don't even have a wand and I'm shit at dueling! Please go—

"NO! I SAID NO!"

"She'll torture you—"

"I'M NOT LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!"

Regulus made a face. I didn't need to be a legilimens to know he thought I was acting like the stereotypical stupid, heroic Gryffindor—which, while a tad bit irritating, was sort of correct.

"Regulus, If they find out you lied for me they'll hurt you too. Please. You're not like them—just come with me! You don't even need your stuff—I know our house is all sad and old, but I swear we have plenty of gold in the bank and can get you a new everything! You can just start fresh! Please!" I practically begged, grabbing his arm and looking at him in desperation. "Please come with me!"

The sound of doors slamming and feet stomping echoed through the halls—batty Bella was getting closer.

"Ellie... I know you're trying to help... and I appreciate it, really..." he whispered, despite the fact that he'd apparently set silencing charms on the room. "But it's safer for everyone if I stay—"

"NO! _No_! You're _not_ safer!" I protested passionately, heart breaking just at the idea of leaving him. "I'm not leaving you! You saved me— now let me save you!"

"I _am_ safer here! Ellie, you don't understand— I can keep you all safe if I'm on the inside—just like Ben—"

"—COME OUT, COME OUT LIZZIE DEAR!" called a deranged voice followed by a thump on the door, effectively ruining the nickname Lizzie for me.

"You need to go!" he growled. "Trust me! I'll be okay!"

He seemed to really believe what he was saying… and he did know his family better than I did… but I still knew that they'd put him through hell if they ever found out he lied for me. "Only if you promise you'll come to my house if they hurt you—if you don't feel safe you come over, okay?!" I compromised

"Okay, Fine—fine!"

"You have to _promise_!" I said emphatically, listening to another thump against the wall.

"I promise! I _promise_! Now _please_ just _go_!" he said impatiently, stepping away and shooing me with his hands to get a move on.

I looked at him one last time. Regulus, the boy who lied... He said he would be safer on the inside, but was it true? Could he really be good, _stay_ good amidst all that evil? That's when something he said stuck out to me... he said he wasn't the only one.

"Wait—what were you saying about Benny?!"

He looked even more anxious and impatient as he repeatedly glanced over to the door. "Nothing—it was nothing— please, El—"

"No! Tell me!" I insisted.

"UGH! I will! Bloody hell I will! —but not _HERE— NOT NOW_!" he said, looking more angry and beside himself than I had ever witnessed. "You said so yourself, this is hardly the time to chat!"

He had a point there.

"You promise?!"

"YES I PROMISE GREENGRASS—NOW GET THE HELL OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"

With those last kind parting words I grabbed a handful of the fine powder within the ugly bag, threw it on the found and said, in as clear a voice as I could manage, "The Greengrass Residence!"

In a in a poof of green fire, was whisked away from Regulus and his insane relatives.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

 **S/N (** **Sirius Note** **)** **:**

 **(Heh heh... See what I did there? Clever, huh?) Alright folks, here's the low down—Ellie isn't writing this chapter. I am. Sirius Orion Black the Third. The boy who puts up with her half insane ramblings and adorable eccentricities. Why? Because there was a shit load of stuff that went down while she was off getting adopted by my stupid little brother that I think is important for you, the reader, to know about.**

 **Now... I don't exactly have** ** _permission_** **to write this chapter... but what Ellie doesn't know won't hurt her, right?**

Alright.

Here we go.

Let's just back on up for a moment. We're at the little muggle village, everything's great. Birthday party, scavenger hunt, we meet Dame Maggie Smith, Ellie's come up with baby names for Remus and Dorcas's future children, then the Death Eaters crash the party... blah, blah, blah... you know all that.

Now, I'd like to explain how I was feeling when Ellie got kidnapped in some very poetic, nuanced way. Something that really makes abstract emotions seem more concrete and palpable so you, the reader, can go on the journey with me. Feel what I felt. But I'm not that good a story teller, and it really just comes down to one simple word:

Mad.

I was mad in both senses of this word. I was angry that they took my girlfriend, and I was just shy of being a total lunatic about it.

Everything was a blur, spells were wizzing around, people were screaming, I was screaming for a while, Dark Mark was looming above the air.

And all I could do was laugh.

Laugh at the horrible joke that was my life.

Of course. Of _course_ she would get kidnapped by Death Eaters. That's my fucking life in a nutshell. Everything's great for a while... then BAM! The universe realizes its mistake and has to course correct with something awful like this.

I was still laughing my bloody arse off when the Death Eaters disappeared and Wally was trying to round everyone up and make sure they weren't dead.

I was still laughing when Wally began shaking me, asking what happened to Ellie—where she was.

James was the one to break the news, I think—it definitely wasn't me, why? You guessed it. Because I was still laughing like a lunatic. Like I was more hyena than dog.

I think someone ended up stunning me.

I think it was Wally.

Good ol' Wally saving me from my insane self once again.

Somehow I got from the little muggle town back to Ellie's house with all of our friends, as well as Wally and Benny...

I sat on their sofa, groggy from the extra strength calming draught someone shoved down my throat when I was semi-conscious (probably Remus), staring at the empty fireplace.

I remember how weirdly normal it all felt to just be sitting on their sofa like that.

But it was wrong.

It was all wrong because Ellie wasn't there.

Nothing in the Greengrass Cottage looked right without her in it, without her crazy hair and goofy sweet smile. It didn't sound right without her laugh or her sarcastic remarks. It didn't smell right without her either. It smelled like B.O..

But _that_ probably had more to do with the amount of collective exercise we'd done, dueling against the Death Eaters.

I remember being confused when James sat down next to me and handed me a tissue.

What the hell was I going to do with a damn tissue?

"What's this for?"

"You're crying, mate," James replied so calmly and casually. As if it wasn't a big deal at all.

I always liked that about James. He was always chill in a crisis—in a _real_ crisis.

I instantly took the tissue and wiped off my face, which indeed was all wet. Crying sucks.

"She could be dead right now," I said just as casually as him.

"She's not."

"But she could be."

"But she's not." He said it again, even more confidently, pushing his glasses up with his finger and readjusting his too-big feet.

"I'm going to kill someone if she's dead," I told him, as if I was commenting on what I would have for dinner that evening. I could have just as easily said "I'm going to have the fish if there's no chicken."

I vaguely registered a "POP" coming from outside the front door. Someone had Apparated to their house.

It wouldn't be Ellie, though. She hated Apparating. Always made her sick. I doubted she would ever pass her exam when the time came. _If_ the time came...

"Dumbledore's here," James said somewhat hopefully. "Wally sent him a Patronus message thing while you were knocked out—we should learn how to do that... the talking Patronus thing..."

I knew James was just trying to keep me from thinking about murder, but I humored him.

"What was his Patronus?" I sniffled.

"A golden retriever, I think."

I let out a short, one syllable laugh. James continued to quietly sit at my side while the others cried and freaked out behind us. _The eye of the storm._

Lily was crying the worse of all of them and I knew that James wanted to go talk to her, but I was too selfish to let him. I needed him. He grounded me. And I think he knew that too.

"Dumbledore's giving Benny 'That Look'," James whispered.

 _That_ _L_ _ook_. That's what we named it when Dumbles looked at you with the sparkly eyes over his half-moon spectacles, usually when you were being shifty and secretive. James was convinced he was reading his mind every time he did it to him.

If he was giving 'That Look' to Benny, it probably meant he thought the little git was up to something.

But as punchable as Benny Greengrass was, I didn't think he was capable of doing something truly insanely evil like getting his sister assassinated on her birthday. It was a step or two above his pay grade.

"Frank's leaving with Alice," James informed me, like he was commentating a Quidditch match. "Oh—I think Lily's leaving with them. But Remus is staying, I think—"—He half shouted over everyone's chatter— "Oi, Rem! You going?"

"We're staying—or _I_ am..." answered Remus. "Dory, I can take you home if you want—"

"No... no... I-I'd really prefer to stay here if that's alright..."

"Perfectly fine!" Wally said in his too happy voice.

He did that when he was scared or upset sometimes... got too happy. Trying to balance out all the sad I suppose.

Used to drive Ellie nuts after her mum died. He was always smiling too much, she said it freaked her out. "Let me brood in peace," she'd say with that adorable grumpy face of hers.

I would have literally killed to see her adorable grumpy face at that moment.

"Dumbledore's talking to her dad now, pulled him into the kitchen," James said.

I was still staring at the fireplace. If Ellie was going to come back, part of me was sure she would try to do so through that fireplace.

Ellie wouldn't leave me... She would do anything to get to me if she knew I needed her. Which I _really_ did at that moment—needed her with me, needed to know she was safe... _Alive_.

She wouldn't just take some slow stupid broom or run on foot if she could take a floo to see me right away. I knew Ellie knew I was a wreck. If James was right, she would turn up in that fireplace any minute.

But time moved slower than it should have and the minutes felt like days.

James kept giving me little play-by-plays on everyone's whereabouts. He got up three times. Once to get me some Peppermint toads and Tea, and twice for more tissues, because apparently I was crying again without noticing.

Maybe it was the calming draught, but I felt weird. Numb but anxious. Restless but paralyzed. I wanted to go. Do something. Fight someone. Save Ellie. But I couldn't stop thinking about the fireplace. What if I missed her? What if she showed up and no one noticed?

James nudged my arm with his bony elbow. "Mate, drink your tea before Remus shoves it down your throat."

I drank the stupid (now cold) tea... feeling stiff from such intense brooding.

That's when the fireplace made a weird noise—A sort of low rumbling that made the family pictures on the mantle rattle like there was an earthquake. I shoved the stupid half-drunk tea and half eaten peppermint toad into James's hands without even bothering to look at him.

Green fire.

This was it.

Green fire and wild blonde hair.

I was fully aware that I was crying at this point and I didn't care.

Ellie fell into my arms like a missing puzzle piece—a warm little perfect puzzle piece.

I was crying in her hair. _I_ was crying, not her. Not the girl who just got kidnapped by Death Eaters. _Me_ , the boyfriend who had done nothing but drink tea on the couch.

I pulled away and looked at her through blurry eyes. So many questions were running through my mind but my sluggish mouth wasn't fast enough to ask them all. "Are-are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt? How'd you get here? How—"

Someone ripped us apart.

Benny.

Benny plowed through us, shoving me aside and sticking his wand right in Ellie's face.

I was rightfully indignant.

Ellie was shocked. "BENNY?! What are you—?"

"When you were seven and I was eight, what were our family Halloween costumes?"

"What?!" she asked, confused. "What—why—"

"ANSWER THE BLOODY QUESTION!"

Ellie stared at him with her mouth open and her little eyebrows all furrowed together. "M-mum was Dorothy, Dad was scarecrow, you were tin-man, and I was the lion..."

Benny lowered his wand immediately then threw his arms around her. This was the first time I had ever seen him truly hug her. "Sorry—polyjuice potion—had to make sure it was you—Are you okay?" he asked, pulling back.

I wanted to run up and steal her away from him. I nearly did, but James grabbed my arm and shook his head. I chose to trust his judgment, after all, I was insane.

She nodded. "I-I escaped..." she said, looking over at me, then over at the others in the room.

Everyone wanted to hug Ellie once they realized she had materialized—made me glad I found her first.

Everyone also wanted to know _how_ she had materialized.

And if she was okay.

Once everyone was done freaking out over her triumphant return, Dumbledore stole my spot on the sofa and had her sit down next to him.

She looked so tiny next to him with a giant mug of tea in her hands—I don't know when _that_ showed up, but I'm sure Remus had something to do with it.

Dumbledore was even calmer than James and gave off a very grandfatherly vibe as he asked her questions.

It was kind of weird, looking back. We were all sort of surrounded around them like they were on a tv-talk show. I was still standing near the fireplace next to James even though I wanted to be next to her.

Ellie began to explain what happened from the beginning. "I got kidnapped—I think they took me to Lestrange's house—I saw a crest somewhere."

Dumbledore nodded politely. "And what happened then?"

"Well they tried to tie me up, but I convinced the guy to move me to a more comfortable chair... told him it was my birthday."

I let out an ill-timed laugh that earned me a glare from everyone in the room except Ellie and Dumbledore.

"And how did you escape?"

"Well I punched him, sir," she said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

This time Benny was the one with the ill-timed laugh.

"You _punched_ him?" Dumbledore repeated, as if he thought he misheard her.

"Well they took my wand, you see... and so I punched him. Great big welp on his head—knocked him out right away, then I shoved his wand in a potted plant," she said matter-of-factly.

Wally snorted a laugh then acted as if he hadn't.

Dumbledore's eyebrows rose, but he continued on. "And then what happened? Were there others?"

"Uh..." She made eye contact with me, as if she was hoping I would give her an answer. But I didn't know what to make of it. "Um... no..." she said awkwardly. "There was no one else..."

She is such a bad liar it's not even funny.

Dumbledore gave her 'That Look'.

"I—I found some floo powder—looked around for it erm... in the house... alone... then came here... when I found it, the floo powder..."

Lies, lies, lies. It was all lies.

Now I sort of understood the pleading look she gave me.

"I think," I said, voice not sounding like my own. Everyone looked at me as if they thought I'd do something crazy. "I think Ellie could use a nap..." I said, trying my very hardest to sound sane.

Not sure if it actually sounded sane or not, but Wally agreed with me, and soon I was escorting my very alive girlfriend up to her room, having absolutely no intentions of going back downstairs.

When we were inside her room, door shut, Ellie hugged me... squeezed me, if we're being honest.

"I love you," she said, but it sounded like she was crying.

"I love you too," I said squeezing her as well (though maybe not as hard, I didn't want to break her).

I somehow got her to let go long enough to have her lay down on the bed beside me, legs tangled together and arms trying to hang on to each other. I dunno how it was comfortable, but we made the Pretzel cuddle work somehow.

Her breaths slowed and she kissed my chin, then my jaw, then said, "I'm sorry."

Why on earth this crazy girl thought she had something to be sorry about was beyond me.

I readjusted so I could see her face—it was all blue eyes at this angle.

"I-I know I scared you—I'm sorry..." she said.

"It wasn't _you're_ fault, El. If anything it was mine—"

"It wasn't your fault either," she said calmly, sort of like James, but with more attitude and pouting.

"Wanna tell me why you lied?"

She nuzzled her face into my chest like she was hiding. "Because I turned into a cat then Regulus saved me—"

I pulled her away so I could see her properly. "What?!"

"I didn't want everyone else to know I was an animagus—"

"But Reg—he was there?! He helped you?! Ellie, I don't—"

My words were ended when Ellie's lips met mine. She kissed me slowly, hands in my hair. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her so that she was almost on top of me, then one hand moved to her cheek, cupping her sweet soft face, running interference on her wild hair so it wouldn't get tangled up in the kiss. Nothing ruins the mood more than hair in your mouth.

Ellie pulled away first. Ellie always pulled away first... unless she was drunk. Then I had to do mean things like threaten to take away her bacon just so she would stop trying to give me hickies. It was a small price to pay for love.

"I love you," she said kissing my nose. "But I don't want to talk about what happened right now—I'll explain everything, to you and the guys... just... right now I want to just be here... with you... and I'm willing to pull the 'it's my birthday' card if necessary to get my way..." she smirked.

I chuckled and my nose brushed against hers. "As you wish."

"Sirius..."

"Mhmm..."

"Are you okay?"

"I thought you didn't want to talk about this?"

Ellie rolled her eyes. "I didn't want to talk about me being kidnapped... but I want to know if you're okay..."

"You're here. You're alive. So yes, I'm very okay," I told her. And it was true.

"You're eyes look weird..." she said quietly, eyebrows pulling themselves together as she traced my eyes.

"Calming draught..." I said more to myself. "Someone—Someone made me drink one when we got back... I was—I was really upset..."

I intentionally left out the part about the crazy laughing and Wally stunning me because I knew she would worry. Her little healer brain would have gone in overdrive and I wanted her to relax.

She was oddly relieved by this admission. "Oh... oh that's good. That was smart... I was so worried about you... and dad..."

I stroked her wild hair. It was crazy, but it was soft. Sometimes I feel a little weird stroking her hair, too much like petting a cat, but these thoughts usually go away when I see how happy it makes her. "We're fine... everything's fine now..." I said, smiling softly, almost believing it myself. "It's all going to be okay..."

She smiled, and I know she almost believed it too. "Yeah... yeah, you're right."


	31. Chapter31

**Chapter 31– When In Doubt, Snack It Out**

It's always disorienting to fall asleep during the day and wake up at night—it's even more disorienting when you wake up and find a boy sleeping next to you, practically _on top_ of you.

While I was groggy and disoriented, _he_ was annoyingly comfortable. His head was near my neck, breath tickling my skin every time he snored (in hindsight, this is probably what woke me up), our legs were all tangled together in a 'pretzel cuddle' as he would call it, and one of his arms was wrapped around my waist—I don't know where other arm was, but was sure it would show up eventually. He was also warm—really warm—no, he was hot.

Hot hot hot.

Did he always sweat in his sleep? Did _I_ sweat in my sleep? Was this a human thing or a boy thing or just a Sirius thing?

Regardless, it was beginning to be uncomfortable.

I squirmed to get some air but he pulled me closer and made a really cute sound like a grumbly puppy. Which I both loved and hated. Loved because, obviously I loved him and I liked having him close... especially now that I knew how awful it felt to have him far away. And hated because, like I said, he was _hot_. His sweat was now making me sweat which was just gross and unromantic on so many levels.

I briefly wondered why my dad thought letting me take a nap with my boyfriend, unchaperoned, at night, was a good idea.

But then I remembered how out of his mind he looked when I got back.

Too happy.

Much too happy.

He was stuffing all the bad down and trying to act like everything was fine and dandy when it wasn't. In the face of other people's tragedy and trauma, like what happened with Sirius, he was a total rock. A true pillar of strength, moral compass, all that Jazz. But when it came to his own family, not so much.

I don't know if he was always like this or if it was something that started after Mum died, but whenever something threatens his family, he sort of loses himself. I remember right after she passed, there were nights when I would be crying in bed missing her and he had this big smile on his face that made me want to punch him in the teeth. As much as Benny was a toad, he always kept his wits about him in a crisis.

Like that night.

Benny was the only one to even think about confirming my identity. Albeit a bit aggressively, but still. While Benny was trying to make sure I was okay, all dad could do was beam at me with this sort of manic, not there look in his eyes. When he let me go up and nap with Sirius, I could tell that all his normal thoughts of impropriety were long gone, accidentally stuffed away with the part of him that was terrified of losing me like he lost Mum.

But, let's get back to my current sweaty predicament.

I turned my head toward Calvin in his fish bowl and could just barely see a glimmer of some little bubbles floating up the top as he slept. At least I _think_ he was sleeping. He was right side up, so I figured he was sleeping and not dead. Fish turned upside down when they were dead, right?

I didn't think my dad could handle if something happened to Calvin as well.

I felt a hand rustle in the darkness and realized it was Sirius's (alas, the missing arm!). Apparently, he had snaked it under the pillow we were sharing and there was no way it hadn't fallen asleep.

"Mmm, El?" he said in his croaky morning voice, sweaty, sticky arms and legs shifting ever so slightly.

I turned away from Calvin and saw his face, all smudged from the darkness, but eyes shimmering in the light of my Winnie the Pooh nightlight (please try not to judge me for that).

"Hi," I said stupidly.

He smiled softly. "Hi," he said less stupidly.

"You're really hot."

He smirked devilishly. "Oh, I know."

I rolled my eyes. "No—I mean _yes_ —but you're literally like a furnace..." My hands moved to his chest and tried to push him away. He didn't even budge, but his smirk widened.

"A _sexy_ furnace?"

"You're ridiculous," I grumbled, still trying in vain to escape. Stupid clingy mutt.

"Ridiculously... sexy?"

"Please get off of me before I have a heat stroke."

Eventually he let me go with a hoarse laugh then stretched exaggeratedly across the fluffy bed.

"Ah! This is _way_ better than the guest room," he chuckled. "Any chance Wally will let me stay here the rest of break?"

He was kidding, of course, but it didn't feel funny. Dad loved and trusted Sirius immensely, but no father in their right mind willingly lets their teenage daughter sleep in the same room as their teenaged boyfriend, no matter how innocent it may have been.

But like I said, Dad _wasn't_ in his right mind...

"El?" Sirius said, after a moment. "You still awake?"

"Yeah... yeah, I'm up..."

"You alright?"

 _No_.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." I said.

The bed shifted and the blankets rustled as Sirius turned toward me and kissed my semi-sweaty forehead. "You're a really bad liar, babe."

I let out a little laugh at the horrible truth of it.

"Wanna talk about it?"

 _Also, no_.

"I—I'm just..." I trailed off.

Sirius moved a very warm hand to my cheek, waiting patiently as I gathered my thoughts. He probably thought I was going to tell him about the kidnapping, about Regulus... but I still wasn't ready for all that. Besides, that wasn't what was bothering me at that particular moment.

"I-I'm worried about Dad," I finally said. "about what'll happen when we leave in a few days... I don't feel right leaving him here alone..."

Sirius gently pet my hair. Which sounds sort of weird, I know, but it was really soothing. "Wally's going to be fine, El..."

I didn't agree, but kept going regardless.

"But I'm also worried about Benny... and Regulus... and—and I'm kind of afraid something will happen to me too..." I said, not even wanting to look at him. These were the kind of things that made him try to break up with me... Saying I was afraid of them too, well it just felt like I was making it easy for him to break up with me again. But I had to tell him. I had to get it off my chest or the fear would eat me from the inside out. "I'm not scared for me... I know it sounds either stupid or obnoxiously heroic or morbid, I dunno, but I'm not really afraid of dying..."

"El, don't—"

"No, Sirius I've got to say this," I told him putting a finger to his lips. He hated talking about death. Especially mine. "I'm not afraid of dying, Sirius. I'm afraid of what will happen if I'm gone. Of what would happen to you and Dad and the guys—you know Moony would crawl into a hermit cave and blame himself for something—James _might_ be okay... but if something ever happened to his parents he'd need us... all of us... and I—I just... I'm just scared... I'm scared of what'll happen to you all if something happened to me..."

Sirius looked at me for a long moment, thumb stroking my cheek, unsure of what to say to make things better.

But to be fair, I don't think there was anything he _could_ say.

Instead, he kissed my lips. Slow and soft and warm. Perfect.

"We can handle whatever happens," he said in a whisper.

* * *

After a brief snog session, Sirius fell back asleep, but I didn't. I felt restless. Painfully awake. And not just because a sweaty stinky boy was hogging my blankets.

Ever so carefully, I slipped away from his clingy grip around my waist, threw on a sweatshirt, and padded my way down to the kitchen to make myself a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal.

When in doubt, snack it out, right?

I yawned as I walk down the back stairs into the kitchen, but soon found I was not alone.

Someone was sitting in the kitchen.

Given the day I'd had, my first reflex was to reach for my wand with every intention of flinging a nasty hex and whoever was looming in the darkness... but I didn't _have_ my wand because of those dirty thieving Death Eaters, so instead I scurried behind the doorway, trying to keep from breathing too loudly.

"El?" said a voice.

Benny.

Benny's voice.

Benny was sitting at the kitchen table in the dark.

"You scared the nargles out of me, you shifty git!" I hissed, popping out from behind the door. "What are you doing sitting here in the dark?"

"Pantry light's on..." he mumbled through a mouthful of his own cereal.

I frowned and grunted by way of acknowledgement as I made my own bowl of 'Cheeri-owls' and a cup of chamomile tea, then plopped down at the table across from him.

It was quiet for a long time. Peaceful. Calm. Serene. Honestly, I think it was the best Benny and I had got along in ages.

But of course Benny had to open his big mouth.

"Need to refuel after shagging Sirius, eh?"

I rolled my eyes and kicked him under the table. "You're such a perve," I grumbled. "We were literally just sleeping."

 _And snogging, but he didn't need to know that._

"Yeah... Sleeping... That's why you've got that big hickie on your neck..." he sniggered.

I suspected he was lying, but self-consciously readjusted my hoodie to cover my neck... just in case. "Why are _you_ down here? Heading off to some midnight rendezvous with your death eater buddies? You going to have an arts and crafts night to decorate your mask?"

Benny wrinkled his nose and shoveled a large spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

My spiteful comment did its job and shut him up for a while.

The wind outside picked up, making the windows whistle and the shutters creak and moan.

It used to scare me when I was little. I was convinced it was the sound monsters made... And if I was honest, at sixteen, part of me was still convinced.

Benny stirred his spoon around his bowl of milk for a few awkward clinking seconds. I wondered why he was still sitting there if he was done eating and eyed him suspiciously.

"I didn't know," he said quietly.

"About arts and crafts night? Those Death Eaters seem like an organized lot, don't they hand out social calendars?"

He looked up at me, brown eyes full of what I could only describe as remorse. "I didn't know they would take you, El."

I blinked.

Benny was being serious and it was weird.

Everything about that day had been weird.

I looked down at my bowl, watching my soggy 'Cheeri-owls' spinning around and around in 2% milk, looking nothing like they did when I poured them in the bowl... And it suddenly occurred to me that even if I were to take them out of the bowl, out of the milk— even if I spared them from the fate of becoming my late night snack, they'd never be the same as they were when I poured them out of the box.

"Why do you want to be part of all that, Benny? Why do you want to be— to be one of _them_?" I said in just above a whisper. "They're _murder's_ , Benny…"

Benny ran a hand through his blonde hair. "It's— It's complicated, El."

I looked up at him, sharply. "No, it's not."

Another flash of remorse.

"El, you should get back to bed— I'm sure Sirius is—"

"If you make another crude joke about me and Sirius, I swear I'll punch you in the jaw."

Benny glared at me, knowing full well I'd keep my promise, then shook his head slowly, looking down at his bowl of milk. "I don't know why Dad let him up there with you..."

"Me neither..."

Benny glanced up and met my gaze. "You know he made Dumbledore tea and cakes when you were missing..."

I couldn't decide if this was funny or sad. Neither could Benny.

"Sounds about right... Probably had the crazy smile on too..." I said.

"Oh yeah... Full on crazy grin... worse than at Mum's funeral..."

I laughed a short, weird, somewhat sad laugh. Because that's all I really could do.

"I'm going to ask Aunt Gerdy to come stay with him when we leave," said Benny.

I rolled my eyes and sighed loudly.

 _Yes Benjamin, let's let one mental family member take care of the other..._

"I know you don't like her—"

"She always calls me Ann."

"—But it's better than leaving him here all alone..."

I hated that he had a point.

"We could always just—" I began, words falling out of my mouth as soon as they popped in my head. Benny looked at me quizzically. "We could always... you know... _stay_..."

Benny's brows scrunched together and he looked rather puzzled. "You and I, stay? _Here_? With dad?"

I shrugged.

"But— we— we have school? _You_ have O.W.L.s? You can't _seriously_ be considering—"

"I can study at home as well as I can at school— and he... he needs me… he needs _us_ , Benny."

"No." He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. "No, I won't let you put your life on hold just because Dad can't figure out how to compartmentalize properly—"

"Benny!"

"You know I'm right, El!" he said. "We're going back to school—Aunt Gerdy will take care of him—And that's final—"

"No! It's _not_ final! You haven't even asked her yet!"

"Ellie, you _have_ to go back to school!"

"No— I— _Don't_!'

Benny's jaw clenched, the vein on his forehead popped out, and he looked like he was a second away from screaming at me when he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Ellie, you have to go back to Hogwarts—"

"No, I don't! I just told you I can study from home—"

"Don't you understand?! It's not safe here!" he said, spoon clattering onto the table, breath heavy. "If you stay here, they'll just try to kidnap you again! You're safer at Hogwarts!"

I stared at him, trying to make sense of what he was saying.

Something in his tone and ragged breaths made me believe him.

But I didn't want to know how he knew this information.

"B-but what about Dad? If it's not safe, how can we—"

"They don't want Dad. They want _you_." Benny ran his hands over his face, rubbing his eyes wearily.

My mind ran back to Regulus only hours before. Saying how they wanted me. Wanted to recruit me.

"Why?"

Benny didn't answer.

"Benny, why do they want me?"

He continued to rub his eyes, still refusing to give me an answer. Typical annoying Benny making life difficult for no gosh darn reason.

"Benny! Tell me!"

Still, no reply.

I balled up my fist, ready to ask him again, a little more _forcefully_ this time, when I heard footsteps padding down the stairs, then a croaky voice. "El? Ellie? You down here?"

Sirius.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm here..."

"Are you okay?" he asked, half asleep and worried.

"I'm fine, Sirius... Just popped down for a snack," I said. "I'll be back up in a moment..."

Thankfully, Sirius was too sleepy to argue, and simply grunted and shuffled back up the stairs.

I grabbed my bowl and tea cup, and started to get up from the table.

If Benny wasn't going to give me answers, I wasn't going to waste my time sitting with him when I could be snuggling with my furnace of a loving boyfriend.

However, as I rose, Benny caught my wrist, brown eyes pleading. "Elizabeth, I need you to promise you'll go back to Hogwarts..."

I looked down at his grip on my wrist, then back to his eyes, catching a manic flash I was more used to seeing in Dad's.

"Why? So I'll be _safe_?" I said, anger bubbling up within me. I knew he was trying to protect me, but why now? Why was he pulling the protective brother card all of a sudden? Where was this concern when he helped spread nasty rumors about me, or when I was nearly killed by his stupid thug friend on the Quidditch pitch? "Since when do you give one shit about my safety?"

Again, he looked angry, jaw clenched, and grip around my wrist tightening. "Promise me you'll go back to Hogwarts, El," he said through his teeth.

To anyone else, he might have been intimidating.

But not to me.

I stared back at him and said with the same ferocity. "Promise _me_ you won't become a Death Eater."

He held my gaze for a burning moment, and I swear by my guitar and every Beatles record that I own that, for a moment, a brief moment, he was about to give in, that he would have given up his dream of becoming a Death Eater for me.

But he didn't.

He let me go.

He put his bowl in the sink.

Then he went back up to his room.

And the next morning as Dad smiled too wide and made us all pancakes and bacon, refusing to acknowledge that I had nearly died the day before, it was as if none of it had ever happened.


	32. Chapter32

**Chapter 32**

I winced as the oil lamp shattered, etched glass tinkling down onto the ancient hardwoods.

"No... no... definitely not the elm..." the old man breathed, snatching the wand out of my hand.

Wand shopping was clearly not going as well as planned.

Sirius shot me a sympathetic, yet amused, smile, looking particularly handsome in his red jumper that mid-morning. He sat looking all elegant near the frosted shop window beside a rather large, rather old, and rather cranky woman.

The woman was not quite so handsome. Freckles and liver spots speckled her wrinkled skin, her rather round head was topped with short greying brown blowzy hair and a mink pointed hat. She wore dark purple robes that might have been in fashion before Dad was born, an ugly dolphin diamond encrusted broach, and was drenched in a pungent, sickly sweet perfume that made one's eyes water when one got too close (which Sirius most definitely was). Oh, and she was knitting, aggressively—and she also happened to be my aunt Gerdy.

Mr. Olivander handed me my twenty-second wand that afternoon: 14", dogwood and dragon heartstring.

Aunt Gerdy heaved a great sigh.

I gave Sirius an apologetic look.

I was annoyed just having her there, but his poor miserable soul had to sit _next_ to her, nodding pleasantly as she complained. ("In my day they didn't have all this mushy gushy wand nonsense! You got whatever was available and that was that!")

I waved the dogwood and dragon heartstring and, to absolutely _no ones_ surprise, sent about a dozen wand boxes shooting out of the shelves and onto the floor with a loud crack.

I cringed and gingerly placed the wand back on the counter. "I'm really sorry, Mr. Olivander... I didn't realize it would take so long..."

Aunt Gerdy grunted and knitted a little more aggressively. Sirius shifted away ever so slightly, eyeing the needles warily. Smart lad. (Legend has it Gerdy once took out three of Grindelwald's followers with a single knitting needle.)

Mr. Olivander took a couple seconds to register what I said, rummaging through one of the highest shelves on a tall ladder, then replied with a characteristic dismissive wave. "No, no... we mustn't rush perfection... after all... the wand chooses the witch..." He paused, then flicked his own wand to a old box making it flutter down to the counter. When he climbed down, he peered at me with those mysterious cataract filled eyes of his— _he should really get that cloudiness checked out by a healer_. "I wonder..." he said quietly.

He seemed like the kind of man that 'wondered' more than the average wizard, so I took his spookiness with a grain of salt.

Speaking of salt.

I was starving.

"Sirius, we should grab Fish n' Chips when we're done," I said as an aside.

His stupid handsome face lit up. "Ooo! Yes! We can go to that little muggle place down by—"

"No! NO FISH N' CHIPS!" Aunt Gerdy bellowed in her thick Scottish accent. Even Olivander looked startled. "I have _strict_ orders to deliver Ann to the cottage as soon as we finish our shopping—"

I didn't see the point in correcting her on my name. She never listened.

"Orders from whom? Benny?" I said all sassily. "Because you can't take anything he says seriously— he's just bitter because I have a boyfriend and he doesn't—"

"No. From Dumbledore... if you _must_ know."

Freaking Dumbledore was ruining my dating life.

You get kidnapped _one time_ and suddenly you can't go get fish n' chips with your boyfriend?! Ridiculous.

I was scowling as I picked up the stupid wand, which didn't bode well.

The spooky old wand nearly set the place on fire.

"Shoot!"

Ollivander seemed only _slightly_ phased by his singed eyebrows, which I guess was a good thing. "How about a nice Holly?"

The holly sucked too.

Literally.

I accidentally charmed a small tornado that tugged at the end of Aunt Gerdy's yarn ball.

By this point we were all getting a little antsy. Even the usually cool Ollivander.

Aunt Gerdy frowned deeply, making the wrinkles on her face even more prominent. "You should give her a Yew," she practically ordered the man in her aristocratic, authoritarian way. "Greengrass women are notoriously ' _Yewy_ '"

I snorted. The way she said "Yewy" made it sound like a bad word—though, to her it probably was.

You see, Gerdy was actually my _great_ aunt from my mum's side—the Abbots. She and my dad got on well enough, but she always hated his family for how they treated Mum. So if she was calling me 'Yewy', it probably wasn't a complement.

However, to her credit, I didn't recall waving any Yew wands that afternoon. Most of the ones I'd tried were willow or unicorn hair like my last one, but none of those felt quite right—clearly. Yew was worth a try at least.

Ollivander peered at me with those cataract eyes of his once more—a few drops of dittany would do him some good, but it seemed rude to give him my medical opinion at the present moment.

"Yew... you and Yew..."

Sirius was fighting very hard to keep a straight face. Merlin, we needed to get out of there.

"I do have... but..." Ollivander tsked and tutted and puttered around for a while in that batty way of his, then finally disappeared from the shop entirely, going into a back room.

"Four sickles says he's bailing," Sirius laughed.

"Oh, shush..." Gerdy scolded, though for a moment she seemed almost amused, the corners of her mouth twitching upward.

Leave it to Sirius to woo all my relatives—excluding Benjamin the baboon, of course.

When Ollivander returned, he came carrying with him a dusty box that looked older than Aunt Gerdy—which is really old because I'm pretty sure she was school pals with Dumbles. Anyways, it was old. And looked like it had been nibbled on by more than a few mice and doxies. Quality wands indeed...

"This wand has sat in my shop for 200 odd years..." Ollivander said in his raspy, spooky voice once again.

I wasn't sure if the '200 odd years' bit was supposed to be some fun exposition, or a selling point, or if he was trying to subtly hint to take it easy on the wand waving since it was geriatric. My money was on the last one though.

"Curious as wands go, Miss Greengrass... Nine and a quarter inches... Yew and Phoenix feather... yes... very curious wand indeed... exceptionally rare pair..."

"Ah! El! A weirdo wand!" Sirius chuckled. "It's perfect for you!"

"If you don't shut it, I'll shove this weirdo wand right up your—" I suddenly realized I was in polite company and Sirius sniggered. "Um... so it's special?" I said, smiling sheepishly at Ollivander.

He frowned slightly, probably annoyed that we weren't taking this as seriously as he was. "Quite special."

Gerdy hmphed.

I opened the box and coughed at the amount of dust, yet the wand itself looked perfectly fine.

Better than fine, actually.

The box was hideous and tattered but the wand itself was... cute.

Ollivander played it up to be this regal and mystic wizarding instrument... but it was just sort of... cute. Not what you would expect. I wouldn't say it was graceful or elegant... or even pretty, though it wasn't by any means an ugly wand—it was just... cute.

It was pretty short, as far as wands went, but not too shot, and had little hearts carved on the handle. If I were picking my first wand at 11 I would've have thought it was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen.

Without further ado, I picked up the sweet little wand and flicked it, bracing myself for the worst.

This time there were no broken lamps, or flames, or tornadoes. A glow of golden sparks like tiny fireworks sprinkled around us and something just felt... right. I felt a warmth, a fuzzy warmth that reached all the way into my soul.

I beamed. "I'll take it!"

"Weirdo wand for the win!" Sirius cheered.

I swiftly jinxed him some dog ears with said weirdo wand.

* * *

"How'd the wand shopping go, Ellie Boo?" Dad chirped as I dusted the floo dirt off my shoulders.

I coughed and it took a few beats to realize he'd laid out every bit of broom maintenance equipment he owned in the middle of the living room. "It was fine..." I trailed off absently, taking in the many racing brooms leaned against the couch and over arm chairs. "Er... what's up with all..." I gestured to the cluttered mess, " _this_." It seemed he had unearthed his entire broom collection in the time it took for me to purchase my new wand.

Dad pushed some dirty blonde hair out of his eyes with his forearm, hands too busy clipping the stray straws off a _Cleansweep 300_ as he laughed. "Oh, just doing some spring cleaning!"

"It's winter."

He laughed again. "It's just an expression, Ellie Boo!"

I frowned. He was too happy. Benny, Sirius, and I were leaving in less than 24 hours and here he was polishing his broom collection?

"Where's Sirius?" he asked, still snipping away, either unaware of my frowniness or purposefully ignore it.

"He went with Gerdy to grab us lunch..." I said, sitting in the only spot available upon the loveseat beside some dirty rags. "Apparently it's too risky to take me to a muggle fish n' chips joint."

Dad purposefully ignored the latter half of my explanation and switched to polishing.

"Where's Benny?" I asked after it was clear he wasn't going to speak.

Dad rolled his eyes, yet still not meeting mine. "Doing _laundry_..." he said as if this was ridiculous and unnecessary—bold stance for someone in his situation, I observed. "I asked him to help me out down here but he said..." Dad hesitated. "Well you know how your brother is."

Yeah, he probably said he shouldn't be cleaning his massive broom collection when we had two house guests and three teenagers who needed to get ready to back to boarding school.

"Right..." I said running a hand through my curly hair probably making it a billion times frizzier. "Well I'm going to go... go check on him..." I stood and nearly sent a tin of polish rolling onto the floor. "See if I can convince him to my laundry as well..." I added with a faked laugh.

Normal Dad would have noticed it was fake and forced, but broom maintenance obsessed Dad couldn't pick up on social nuance in quite the same way.

"Good luck with that," he chuckled, eyes still never leaving the broom as I walked towards the stairs. "Oh! But do me a favor while your up there and tell him not to run off after dinner... I have an announcement to make."

I blinked. "An _announcement_? What kind of announcement?"

He smiled like he was hiding the best secret in the world. "You'll have to wait and see."

* * *

"Benny, he's totally cracked," I said closing his bedroom door too forcefully behind me, making the portrait of _Leonard Spencer-Moon (_ his favorite Minister for magic) wobble on the wall above his dresser.

Benny, lowered the boring book he was reading about dream theory frowned from where he was lounging on his bed, yet making a face for me to continue.

"He said he has an 'announcement' to make after dinner and that you can't run off to your death eater friends—"

Benny boo raised an eyebrow. " _That's_ what he said?"

I waved him off in annoyance, seating myself at the foot of his blue bedspread. "Close enough... Do you know what he's on about?"

Benny sighed, bookmarking the page and placed the book on his oddly empty bedside table. His whole room seemed empty. It was usually pretty clean (this is Benjamin we're talking about after all), but it was strange seeing all his stuff packed away.

It reminded me that I hadn't even started packing.

"No... but I'd be willing to bet it has something to do with the brooms..." he said wearily.

I fiddled with the itchy knitted, navy blue blanket Aunt Gerdy had made him for some birthday—I was sure he only had it out in case she came in his room. I wondered if he'd keep it there for the rest of term while he was at school and she was there. The idea of Dad being taken care of by Gerdy made my insides all restless, on edge. "We can't just leave him here, Benny... not when he's like this..."

"He's going to be fine, El. Gerdy will—"

" _Fine_? He's completely off his rocker! Have you looked downstairs?!"

"He's just cleaning, El."

"His _entire_ broom collection? He doesn't even like cleaning!" I said, speaking theatrically with my hands.

That stumped Benny for a moment. He shifted so he was sitting beside me. "Look, how about we just see how things go having Gerdy here..." I drew breath, ready to retaliate, but he spoke before I could. "If it looks like he... like he needs more... _help_... I'll take care of it..."

"But—"

"El... I said I'd take care of it... You need to focus on school... not Dad."

I knew Ben would keep his word. I don't know how. Probably some weird sibling telepathy. But I also knew I couldn't do what he wanted me to do. I couldn't just stop worrying about my dad when he was like this.

Sure, it was broom polishing now... but what if it turned into something more dangerous later? My mind flashed to a time long forgotten: the spring break after Mum died.

Those few months after Mum passed were difficult for all of us. Benny became a pain in arse rule follower and I was a nervous wreck. But dad took things the worst of all of us... not that we knew being at Hogwarts and all.

A few weeks prior to our return, Dad had evidently become obsessed with photography. And I don't use to word obsessed lightly. He owl-ordered dozens and dozens of books, and cameras, and random photography equipment—spending no small part of our fortune (made more significant by the fact that he'd quit his job playing for Puddlemere United when mum got sick). He'd never even taken an interest in photography before this.

When we got home, thanks to the Potters since dad never showed at the platform, the whole cottage was an absolute mess, filled to the brim with photography supplies and boxes and half read books.

Benny's room had been turned into a dark room.

Mine a gallery for his photographs of weird things like diner chairs and stray cats.

The kitchen was a mess. Food had been left out, uncovered, dirty dishes spilling out of the sink and onto the filthy counters, trash over flowing and buzzing with gnats.

Dad was a mess.

Unshaved. Unshowered. Unconscious. Holed up in his dark bedroom.

Apparently, shortly after buying the entire catalog of magical photography equipment available, reality hit him over the head and sent him into a deep dark funk.

I remember how scared I was standing in that house... that house that didn't seem like mine. Standing in the sea of chaos, my one anchor to normalcy had cut the chain that bound us, and I felt like I was being tossed in the storm. My father, the one who was supposed to be there for me was in shambles, completely unreliable and emotionally unavailable. Our house, my safe place, felt like a battle zone.

Sure, dad had always been moody. He had his ups and downs like anyone, but Mum always knew how to handle it. She always made things better. Sometimes she would make him go on a run to 'get his energy out'... others she made him homemade potions to help he'd get tired or too keyed up. And we just thought it was normal. It was just Dad being dad. Sometimes he was sad Dad or happy Dad. But he was always himself. And home was always home.

This wasn't Dad. This wasn't home.

It didn't take long after the Potters dropped us off for Benny to fetch Aunt Gerdy. She had plucked Dad out of bed and whisked him off to Saint Mungo's while Benny talked me through a panic attack (those happened a lot more often those days). A few hours and several potions later, was when we learned that what dad went through was not quite so normal.

Gerdy had stayed with dad in the hospital, while Benny and I went back home. Benny cleaned the mess, returned the photography equipment, got our money back, and took care of me until Dad came home a few days later. Benny made our home, home again. He made it safe.

But when Dad came back we never talked about what happened.

It was understood that it was a moment of our collective memory that we would all ignore for the foreseeable future (which is incredibly unhealthy and non-advisable).

Until that day, Benny and I had never talked about it directly to each other or anyone else to my knowledge... Not even Sirius knew how bad things had really been (which might have explained why he idolized dad more than we did).

I don't know why we didn't talk about it though. Maybe the Dad in us hoped if we ignored it it wouldn't be real. Maybe we were ashamed. Maybe we didn't want to admit that our little family wasn't as perfect as everyone thought. Maybe we just didn't want people to think bad of Dad. He was, after all, amazing a majority of the time. People shouldn't be judged for their lowest moments.

Whatever the reason, it was becoming clear that the silence would soon be breaking, either with a whisper or crash.

"When you say 'take care of it...'" I said, voice so small—like the scared little girl who'd just walked into that cluttered house a few years prior. "You mean Saint Mungo's, don't you?"

He didn't answer. He didn't have to. His eyes said it all. Benny would do what he always did. Clean up the messes dad left.

"Did you get your new wand?" he asked, instead of answering.

I shrugged. "Eventually. Broke a few lamps... caused a fire and a small tornado—" His eyes widened slightly at the word 'tornado'. "but we found a keeper in the end." I handed him the cutesy wand out of my pocket for his careful inspection. It wouldn't have surprised me in the least if he'd read some full book on wand properties.

"It's Yew," he said, surprised. Ten points to me for being right on the wand knowledge thing.

"Yew and Phoenix feather, technically."

"Mines yew too..." he said, running his hand over the handle. "Weird..."

"Well... you know what they say..." I began sagely. "Us Greengrass women are notoriously 'Yewy,'"

Benny swiftly whacked me with a pillow.


End file.
